by Jason Scott Gessner|
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Sonic Youth, noise-guitar innovators and post-punk prodigies, recently released A Thousand Leaves(DGC, 1998). A Thousand Leaves regroups the band, synthesizing their myriad musical histories, as well as bringing together all of the members' recent solo work. The album is by far the most open-ended of any of SY's albums (with the exception of the three recent instrumental EPs, SYR1, SYR2 and SYR3) in terms of lyrical straightforwardness or pop structures. The songs sprawl and uncoil at paces both unexpected and graceful.
The dreamlike guitar layering and hushed vocal tribute to weekend relaxing ("Sunday") and the late Allen Ginsberg ("Hits of Sunshine (for Allen Ginsberg)") sung by Thurston Moore are initially at odds with Gordon's sometimes raucous yelps. However, the songs lose any negative tension between them as the album uncoils. The differing vocal and melodic particulars of SY's members emerge at times from soft and lilting melodies and fade at other times with the crackling snarls and screams of guitar distortion. page 1 of 2 (on to page 2) |
A Thousand Leaves seems at first like (bassist/guitarist/vocalist) Kim Gordon's album. Pictures of her dominate the album art, and on the back, she even holds the sign with the record company insignia on it. Also, the cover, with its collage of a little girl pulling the covers up tight around her and the large hand cradling a hamster ("hamster girl" by artist 
While the songs on the album really have no low point, Gordon's songs have the most range, bringing both grit and grace to the album. Her songs "Contre Le Sexisme" and "Heather Angel" open and close the album respectively, but the differences between the male and female on the album seem natural, not forced; descriptive, not definitive.