Thurston Moore

Add Date: May 24 

Artist: Thurston Moore 

Album: Demolished Thoughts 

Label: Matador 

Genre: Rock, acoustic 

Comments: An incredibly well-constructed set of tunes from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on his latest solo LP, Demolished Thoughts. Moore's acoustic guitar work, done with both 6 and 12-string guitars, is accented by guest musicians from Sunburned Hand of the Man, Tower Recordings and Hush Arbors, with bass and percussion joined by violin, keyboards and harp, and everything is tied together by Beck, who produced the album.

Demolished Thoughts finds Moore in a very contemplative mood--what with all the musical layers of a Sonic Youth record, it's quite easy to forget his brilliance as a songwriter; in that sense, I'd compare this album to Several Shades of Why from Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, who stripped things down for that recent solo release. And I'll state the blatantly obvious: Moore, like Mascis, is a tremendous guitarist, which makes it quite rewarding to hear his work on an acoustic version of that instrument; indeed, there are several long instrumental stretches, particularly on late-album tracks "Space" and "January", that make for an extremely enjoyable listen.

Wonderful stuff. Start with "Benediction" and "Circulation".