Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves

The ageless Sonic Youth return with a new, yet familiar, excursion into their own particular brand of ultra-amplified, dissonant rock. The quartet's CD A Thousand Leaves evokes fond memories of yesteryear's noisy, now-classic, avant-garde approach, while retaining snippets of traditional pop elements heard on several of their previous major-label releases. As Sonic Youth's music has gained a larger audience, they've preserved doses of the crunched melody and meandering structure that has always been their trademark. The new release sounds relatively unabashed, with wandering songs like "Female Mechanic Now on Duty" spewing extended barrages of feedback and Kim Gordon's dry, unsettling scowls at the listener. Look deeper, however, and there's a quiet resonance among the racket, with tracks like "Sunday" and "Snare, Girl" making use of Thurston Moore's cooler vocal tone and jagged, cascading guitar passages. --Matthew Cooke Amazon.com

Interesting Stuff

This is the first time I`ve listened to this band. I`m really enjoying it, and will buy another one of their CD`s soon. March 25, 2008

He's just a kitten...

Another masterpiece in the Sonic Youth catalouge. Here the band keeps their avant style leaving behind the pop stylings of Dirty and Goo, and continue with 'Washing Machine' songs. As an SY fan knows though every album is much different than any other, so this of course has it's own unique.

The standout track is definatley "Sunday" with perfect Thurston vocals. Lee keeps up his spoken word masterpieces that always ring true. And the sometimes hit or miss Kim Gordon is in top riot grrl form blasting away on "Female Mechanic". August 5, 2006

The music sounds just like the color of the album cover.

It took me a little while to really get into this, but once I did I just couldnt take this masterpiece out of my cd player. All the songs have like a little weird twist to them, like dejavu notes or melodies you swear you have heard before in your mind. Kim Gordon's singing is pretty good too, at first it might seem like she's just screaming whatever she thinks of but keep listening and it will be very rewarding. July 2, 2006

Sonic Youth loses their way

I remember when this album came out. I had been a huge Sonic Youth fan for years and I ran to Mod Lang in Berkeley to buy it the day it was released. I brought it home, put it on, and desperately tried to like it. But I just couldn't. SY had always had a penchant for strectching out their feedback experiments into sprawling, fasinating compositions, but here it all just seemed to melt down into a pointless noise crusade. There are a few high points, but mostly I just find myself thinking, "there is no way this song deserves to be nine minutes long." The slide continued on the next record, but fortunately they got it together again on "Murry Street" and have been putting out great stuff ever since. July 1, 2006

Continuous vitality

Quite superb, if only for songwriting/production triumphs like "Wildflower Soul" and "Hits of Sunshine." Outside of several gorgeously encapsulated songs, the album's entire structure practically shakes with creative energy.

Part of an essential trilogy with "Washing Machine" and "NYC Ghosts & Flowers." March 22, 2006

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