Album Review: Trees Outside The Academy by Thurston Moore

Review Summary: Sonic Youth guitarist teams up with violinist, as well as a couple of old friends, on first solo acoustic disc in years.“What you’re about to hear is something extraordinary”At 49 years old Thurston Moore is far from a young guy, but you really wouldn’t know it. In fact, he barely looks a day over 21. That being said, Trees Outside The Academy isn’t a youthful record.

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To a music fan, Thurston Moore can be an ubiquitous presence. Of course, his work with Sonic Youth makes the guitarist a constant point of reference in discussion of contemporary rock music or guitar experimentalism, but it seems, especially as of late, that Moore's influence is felt as much through his identity as a critic, talent scout, label head, and, simply, as a music fan. Moore's label, Ecstatic Peace!, recently entered one of its most active eras, and he often appears as a talking head in music documentaries, big and small.

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Psychic Hearts, Thurston Moore's 1995 solo debut, was the epitome of what "indie rock" sounded like right then, and it didn't stray far from what Sonic Youth was doing at the time, either. SY's Rather Ripped flexed some much-needed muscle last year, but the Massachusetts axeman's second solo album finds him in a contemplative mood. It's Moore at his most poetic, especially traversing the vocal valleys of "Silver>Blue." Samara Lubelski's violin and Youthful drumming courtesy of Steve Shelley, along with Moore's acoustic guitar, make Trees the seasonal opposite of Hearts.

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