* LP Record (May 19, 1998)
* Original Release Date: May 12, 1998
* Number of Discs: 2
* Label: Sonic Youth / Syr
side 1 1. Contre le Sexisme 2. Sunday 3. Female Mechanic Now on Duty
side2 4. Wild Flower Soul 5. Hoarfrost 6. French Tickler
side3 7. Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg) 8. Karen Koltrane
side4 9. Ineffable Me 10. Snare, Girl 11. Heather Angel
Thanks in part to a preceding series of self-released instrumental EP's, A THOUSAND LEAVES was among Sonic Youth's mosthighly anticipated releases. Public interest in undergroundelectronica seems to have rekindled the band's interest in making experimental-minded rock albums. A THOUSAND LEAVES demonstrates why, 18 years after they formed in NYC, this bandwas still regarded as the most forward-looking unit in rock. On long tracks like "Wildflower Soul", "Hits of Sunshine (for Allen Ginsberg)", and "Karen Koltrane", the interplaybetween guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo leads thesongs into elaborate and inspired instrumental passages that recall the group's late '80s heyday. As usual, Moore, Ranaldo, and Kim Gordon split up the vocal duties, but this timeKim's singing is gruffer, almost a bark on "The Ineffable Me", while Thurston sounds breathier and more relaxed than ever on "Snare, Girl". Recorded entirely at the band's own studio, A THOUSAND LEAVES feels carefully constructed and produced while still immediate. Even after a dozen albums, Sonic Youth can still come up with over an hour of intriguing and vital new material.
Reviews this is a very enjoyable album, I played it yesterday, it is sort of quiet-ish generally, except The Ineffable Me which is Kim being hardcore as per usual. I got to see them live on that tour, it was good although they concentrated mostly on ATL & only about 3 songs from the rest of their career which a lot of the audience didn't appreciate but it was fine w/ me. Wildflower Soul & Hits of Sunshine are or should be anthems. Heather Angel, the last track is particularly stunning. Lee's 2 tunes here are sort of a lot less powerful than what he's done before but nice. Goes well w/ Washing Machine, SYR1-2. I hope it's not their last great album [SYR4 isn't worthy of the worship they usually create from their fans]....
Spin The title of Sonic Youth's tenth album, A Thousand Leaves, betrays the reflective autumnal feel of the music. Kim Gordon has never sounded less demure and more riot grrrl angry than she does here.... What really keeps A Thousand Leaves vital is the continually inventive fretboard effects of Moore and Lee Ranaldo.... [Sonic Youth have not] outdone themselves here ... but they certainly have done themselves justice. Sonic Youth ... [is] still here because even when they're reaching within themselves, they're reaching way farther than most.
NME The 11 songs stretch out--literally: average track duration is seven minutes. Jams are kicked out, but only after they've been kicked back, in, and subjected to a most awesome battery of atonal abuse.... Here we have rock at its most elemental, with no constraints or reservations.... Rarely has this band's philosophical schizophrenia--enthralled by rock tradition, yet impelled by the instinct to freak--been so cherishably realized.... [T]hey have built the most inspirational, poetic and beautiful temple to noise you're likely to encounter in 1998. Message from "the Youth" to "the Kids": disregard all previous sightings--this is hardcore.
Entertainment Weekly Packed with blank beats, squalling distortion, and ear- torturing discord, Leaves is bracing and abrasive in ways rock records rarely are. Easy listening it ain't. But neither is it much fun, and that's the problem. Although the Youth can balance consonance and dissonance to striking effect ... such slyly subverted pop is scarce. Instead, what we get are dour drones and self-indulgent noise- feats.
People Utilizing all manner of sound effects, from what seems like snatches of radio static and pumping steam pistons to dissonant guitar feedback, the band creates eerily hypnotic soundscapes over which [Kim] Gordon's vocals sound ethereal, angry or bemused, as if she's talking out loud during a bad dream. Moore's vocals, meanwhile, sound like those of Neil Young, whose disdain for traditional pop song structure he also seems to share. Some tracks are standouts ... and they demonstrate why this ... band has survived so long.
USA Today Several of the chugging mid-tempo songs sound like half-baked garage jams badly in need of editing.... [T]oo many tracks beg for the strong hooks and the sonic youthfulness that marked earlier releases.
Along with Washing Machine, A Thousand Leaves is a clear indication that Sonic Youth have transcended the barriers of punk, noise, avant-garde, etc. and have become coincident with the core of modern music and modern lyric poetry across all genres and forms. A Thousand Leaves, sporting long, autumnal, melodic meditations like Hits of Sunshine and Wildflower Soul along ennui-laden snapshots like Hoarfrost and Sunday, is a kind of symphony for the pop/rock age and is as deep and haunting as anything the classicists ever scribbled down on paper.
Now, I've heard and read any number of reviews referring to A Thousand Leaves as 'more experimental' and 'not very pop oriented' but of course these phrases are coming from the mouths of those that do not know much of the history of Sonic Youth or much of truly experimental music. Neubauten's 'Drawings of Patient O.T.' it's not -- in fact, I wouldn't refer to A Thousand Leaves as 'experimental' music in any sense of the word... But by the same token, if you're looking for hooks, hooks, hooks or the McDonald's-style music that SY cashed in with (and more power to them) during the 'grunge era' then this isn't the album for you. If you own Sister and Daydream Nation, however, or even just Washing Machine, and listen to them all the time, unable to keep from tapping your feet and swaying just a little... Then A Thousand Leaves is another perfect Sonic Disc for you. you can find a copy here: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Iron-Man-Shop
