REVIEW: Sonic Youth, A Thousand Leaves (Geffen)
- David Landgren
Can't believe that Sonic Youth are onto their fourteenth release with this album. To get to the point, I could sum it up as follows: if you didn't like Washing Machine, you're probably not going to like this either - but if you want to hear the sequel to "The Diamond Sea", you're going to love it.
I empathize with anyone who says they just want to listen to Daydream Nation for the rest of their life. But I have to point out that what SY is doing now is just as relevant now as ever. They still have the touch: the guitars tuned to a different standard, the dissonance and noise, the melody and the lyrical imagery. But I just happen to think that Sonic Youth are one of the few bands I can count on to improve as the years go by.
The opening moments of the album is the essence of white noise: static flooding out of an amp, over a backdrop of growling feedback. Kim murmuring into a microphone. "A thousand leaves, for your disguise... The leaves are falling... up... and down". Indeed. Thurston Moore apparently said that the title of the album is that each album is a leaf, and that they're going to stop after one thousand albums. This is evidently just a smokescreen to throw us off the track, but I can't see what it really means. Maybe Patrick White's "A Fringe of Leaves". Who knows?
The album really kicks off with "Sunday", the single that has been released in the States for the past month. A vibrant upbeat piece: sharp upfront lead guitar and hugely distorted rhythm guitar swelling up from underfoot, layering together into a characteristic Youth riff where you never quite know where the chord progression is headed to. The verses roll by, the song ambles along until it explodes into a crescendo of guitar that spits and fuses like water droplets in boiling oil. If previous concerts are anything to go by, seeing this live will be an event. On CD the song lasts over four minutes, but Messrs Moore and Renaldo could easily draw this out into a fifteen minute jam in concert.
"Female Mechanic On Duty" is a highly dissonant piece sung by Kim Gordon. It's not one of my favourites, but then again, I'm partial to her singing "Tunic (Song for Karen)" on Goo, much more than a "Quest For The Cup" on Experimental Jet Set. By the same token, it's also why I don't like "French Tickler" all that much. So that's my bias. But it has still much to recommend it, with its Sergeant Pepperish "A Day in The Life" two-songs-in-one approach: the second song in the song is simply gorgeous. Try to spot the album title in the lyrics here as well.
In many ways a continuation of the path explored by Washing Machine, "Wildflower Soul" is a longer track, slower in pace, with long lead breaks. The first break being more Steve Shelley on drums, the second break more a free for all between the guitarists. This idea of a slowing down, of a certain maturity, is confirmed by "Hoarfrost". This latter song debuted as an instrumental that blew everyone away at last year's (1997) Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York. Well, now there are words to accompany it. And you can trace their lineage all the way back to "Me & Jill" from The Whitey Album.
I've been listening to A Thousand Leaves for a week, heavy rotation, basically trying to get my memory to dredge up the answer to the question of what riff did they recycle for "Snare, Girl". I have a feeling it's either something by Bacharach or The Carpenters. SY has always spread the net of their musical sources far and wide; this is merely the most overt expression of that. Usually their references are far more subtle and take years to decrypt. For instance, why do the names Heather and Karen reappear in song titles? Whatever "Karen Koltrane" is ultimately about, it is above all an excellent song, with a stunning industrial jam. And the ending simply has to be heard to be believed.
I strongly recommend you go and see Sonic Youth next time they tour your part of the world - or else organise your foreign travels in conjunction with where they are touring. This album, as strong and rich as it is, as skillfully produced as it is by Wharton Tiers and Don Fleming (who appear to have performed a minor miracle insofar as the album appears so completely "unproduced"). In many ways, A Thousand Leaves represents a snapshot of the band as they were in a particular point in time. These songs are going to evolve over the coming months as the band play them live and explore them for themselves. For instance, "Heather Angel" is made up of three distinct parts, and the middle part is just some idle studio doodling that won't stand up to the light of day. It'll be interesting to see what they make of this. I'd say the first part, sung by Kim, would be perfect closing material. Just chop the rest out.
All in all a rich album, something I'm pretty sure I'll be playing for many years to come. Hell, I still play Evol every few months or so. Unless something pretty major comes up before the end of the year (such as a release from My Bloody Valentine), I name this my Album Of The Year. Sonic Youth are also about the only band who have truly mastered the small CD format. Rather than have a booklet, or foldout sheet, you get a number of sheets, and you choose your own cover du jour. I may just have to go out and buy a copy. Maybe I'll get it on vinyl; it seems fitting.
Last words must go to Thurston Moore, who sums it up best: "We're not, as some people maintain, obsessed with pop culture so much as we're obsessed with its possibilities for stratification and dateability."
