EASE DOWN THE ROAD

3 1/2 Stars 

Part dork, part rocker, part art-star, Thurston Moore is, was and always will be a pretty strange dude. Known for shredding his guitar strings with whatever he can find, his forever bushy head of messy blonde hair, his ogre-like stature and his reputation for having the “coolest” vocal presence since Lou Reed broke up the Velvet Underground, Moore (at age 49) has at long last released his second legit solo album, the bewildering Trees Outside the Academy. Bewildering, that is, if you’re not familiar with Moore’s studied schtick.

While his celebrated 1995 debut solo record, Psychic Hearts, didn’t sway too much from what his noisy Washing Machine-era band, Sonic Youth, was doing at the time, it did force Moore to work on diversifying his vocal approach and songwriting skills. Time, unfortunately, has not been too favorable to Psychic, an album that proved Moore to be more of a collaborator than a leader (the years since have thus seen him release countless loose side projects with other guitar virtuosos). Now older, more experienced and finally seemingly confident alone at the helm, Moore has recorded an album full of multifarious songs, stellar lyrics and the best vocals of his career. And lets not forget Moore’s No. 1 collaborator this time out: modern day guitar god J. Mascis, who played lead guitar on six tracks while lending a hand with recording duties.

Why have the lifeblood of Dinosaur Jr. take on lead guitar duties when Moore is as celebrated with an electric guitar as, well, anyone alive? (He’s also maybe the most inventive of his generation, but not on this record.) Well, for one, Moore’s style of dense noise-as-collage playing wouldn’t fit too well on his new, typically subtle and detail-oriented songs. Also, Mascis is a much better (albeit less artful) technical player than Moore, and these songs, believe it or not, are mostly point blank in their compositions, and thus a good arena for Mascis’ clean-by-comparison style.

Moore’s phrasing throughout Trees, while not too different from the last three Sonic Youth albums, displays his academic knowledge of rock n’ roll songwriters, specifically his affection for beat-minded writers like Patti Smith and Reed (both of whom are celebrated in Trees‘ liner notes). Each line feels important, cryptic and dense – more than ever proving that Moore is far beyond just another tall guitar player with indie credentials.

Trees’ opener, “Frozen GTR,” is a good model of things to come with its acoustic guitar backbone, sprinkled electric guitars, verse/hook/verse/solo format and various oddball instrumental flourishes. You’ll also find a lovey-dovey sing-along (”Honest James”), a pop song (”Fri/End”), a piano-based arty instrumental (”American Coffin”), a cut that sounds like a lost mid-90s-era Sonic Youth song (”Wonderful Witches”) and a string-backed shoegazer (”Never Light”) amongst Trees’ 12 tracks (only 10 of which are actual songs). Sound scary? Well, it is. That is, unless you fancy yourself a longtime Moore fan, in which case nothing here is too surprising but, rather, exciting. Exciting to see him pull off so many things while still keeping true to his longtime art/pop vs. pop/art tug-of-war approach.

Closing out the excellent Trees Outside the Academy is a “spoken word” piece recorded by a 13-year-old Moore. It’s a slackerly exercise of artistic meandering – more or less a closing portrait of a young person who can’t help but be weird, wild and strangely intelligent. It’s odd, thoughtful and creative, just as Thurston Moore is to this day.