Album Review: Thurston Moore Gives Me A “Rock N’ Roll Consciousness”
How do you encompass three decades of innovation into a singular conscious? Thurston Moore founded the legendary Sonic Youth, and branched out into a successful career that even led him to collaborate with fellow innovator/ music admirer Beck. In Rock N’ Roll Consciousness, he shows he is a man that not only understands rock n’ roll as a music but also as a mind-frame.
Now, I am not an innovator by proclaiming that rock n’ roll is a spirit to embody or a perspective to take up. This is a common notion. Moreover, it is one I always mention as purveyor of a good concert. For all the chords you strain and drums you bash, people want to feel you strain and bash your soul as a songful presence, and Thurston Moore does exactly that. Listening to Rock N’ Roll Consciousness is like listening to Moore play a stream of his greatest hits in concert. It strikes up a vision of being at Bowery Ballroom or Beacon Theatre, and seeing Moore shade his guitar strings like someone throwing water on an oil painting; he knows how to muddle a beautiful vision and taunt it with murkiness. Songs such as “Aphrodite” and “Exalted” prove Moore is a master guitarist that can pull, throttle, shake, and grind every note from a guitar as if it were a meat with multiple methods to being cooked. By now, this man knows the tenderness and tension a guitar can stir in listeners, which is why I appreciate that, in essence, Rock N’ Roll Consciousness is spotlight on Moore as a musician rather than a vocalist.
Thurston Moore – Smoke Of Dreams
Yes, Moore can sing, and when he appears in tracks like “Exalted” and “Turn On” , he comes off like a phantasm introducing you to the haunted home you are about to enter. There are times, like in these songs or in “Cusp”, where Moore reveals the nightmarish side of psychedelia, which makes sense as the album is meant to be mythical in scope. Lyrically, as seen in “Aphrodite”, Rock N’ Roll Consciousness observes the celestially of love and nature. It is giant in its story-telling or, at least mythos, yet, if this album is about rock n’ roll being a mentality, not just a genre, then Moore reveals that, like anything, this mindset can turn negative. Like “Exalted”, each song can range from 7 to 12 minutes, which means that they can go from as cool and calm as a gentle tidal wave to as stormy and threatening as a tsunami. One thing I will warn/ admire about this album is that each track is brilliantly arranged to transform soundscapes into dreamscapes, of which you have no control over where their visions guide. Like in mythology or any ancient text on how humanity was spiritually built, moral tides can turn, but you trust Thurston Moore to make it turn in your favor. Rock N’ Roll Consciousness can be bought April 28 by Clicking Here.
