It would be hard not to liken Thurston Moore's new Beck-produced record to 'Sea Change', Hansen's own acoustic departure from his more traditional sound. Within a few seconds of the opening track, you get something that you'd have to search very hard for on any of his previous releases - violin. The only instruments here are Thurston's guitar, the violin and a harp.
Moore has changed the face of the heavier, more experimental end of popular music completely over the last 30 years (and has released a frankly ridiculous number of records with Sonic Youth, solo and with various side projects) but he hasn't, to my knowledge, released anything remotely down the furrow ploughed by this record. There are no screwdrivers anywhere near guitars around here. Despite the odd song (most notably 'Orchard Street') clearly showing what I think of as the 'classic' Sonic Youth chord patterns, angrily propelled forward by minor chords moving in chromatic steps, this doesn't really sound like Thurston Moore. It's very middle-aged, in a way, but even a 52-year-old Moore has more energy and fire than many of the 19-year-olds currently filling the O2 Arena and whatnot.
Acoustic Thurston is on Trees Outside the Academy (although that does have lots of drums). Also it's not totally unlike bits of SY anyway e.g. the opening of The Diamond Sea.
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