KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
Verdict: First solo album in 12 years from Sonic Youth songwriter
Label: Shock
It starts with a searing, slightly wavering note and you prepare yourself for one the improvised noise albums that Thurston Moore records with mates like Lydia Lunch in between Sonic Youth records. But that single note, and a few other dissonant outbreaks (on American Coffin, when Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis contributes, or during the six-minute instrumental title track, for example), is about as challenging as this album gets.
It's his first solo album since 1995's Psychic Hearts and songs like the acoustic Honest James and the Cure-like pitter, patter of Fri/End are nice enough. There are lush strings, wending and winding guitar licks, and there's a singer/songwriter beauty to it that you sometimes forget Moore is capable of when he's wound up in Sonic Youth's mostly taut and tense canon of songs. But overall Trees Outside the Academy comes across a little lightweight in places and, at other times, its like Sonic Youth has gone acoustic. And who can blame the guy for wanting to take a break and simply play some songs after more than 25 years of shredding it up in his main band and doing sporadic noise albums?
With Moore visiting here early next year with Sonic Youth, Trees is double the reason for fans to smile.
