CD Reviews – Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts
Thurston Moore
Demolished Thoughts
Ecstatic Peace
For maybe the first time ever, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore has gone wholly acoustic. Demolished Thoughts deals in the same open-tuned pastorals as its predecessor, 2007’s Trees Outside the Academy, and at times it seems they both may have come from the same recording session. But with Beck on board as producer this time around, the Nick Drake similarities have been ratcheted up and the Jazzmaster meltdowns exchanged for harp glissandos. While it’s nice to see Thurston playing with different elements, the actual songwriting seems a lot weaker this time (and he still hasn’t learned to turn down the damn violins). Not that this is a bad collection of songs – in fact, opener “Benediction” is one of his most compelling solo tracks – but if Demolished Thoughts and Trees were twin brothers, Demolished Thoughts would be the meeker one, the awkward bespectacled one who always calls for Trees to wait up because he runs too fast.
Mason Pitzel
Production Manager