In Sonic Youth’s universe, putting Moore behind an acoustic guitar is sort of like exceeding the speed of light. Electrically-driven noise has been the medium on which his experimentation travels, and to upset it with the clean delivery of an acoustic guitar is to send a ripple through his entire body of work. The result, a highly melodic, sometimes sentimental mellow-out depends often on violinist Samara Lubelski to muddy the mix with restrained dissonance while appearances by J. Mascis and work by SY drummer Steve Shelly ensure a consistent quality of musicianship. It tampers with the same pop sensibility and accessibility as his 1995 solo outing Psychic Hearts, but Trees Outside the Academy features a man ten years calmer, less urgently sounding the battle cry for his self-made medium; he doesn’t have to convince anyone that his signature sound is iconic because everyone knows. Now he can just make songs. –Jeremy Krinsley

(Ecstatic Peace!)

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