While preserving his natural nonchalant charm, Thurston sounds more vigorous, bellicose, twitchy and forceful than he has in years.
There is more than enough quality here to once again establish the eternally youthful Thurston Moore as one of alternative rock’s most vital voices.
Chelsea Light Moving is an entirely successful test of Moore’s post-breakup mettle.
The band (and, by extension, the album) plays like the menacing Jekyll to Sonic Youth’s Hyde, stewing angrily like the latter band’s bipolar brother on Adderall.
In the place of modest, carefully plotted songs, such as those on his recent releases, the tracks on Chelsea Light Moving are thickly poured out, congealing in pools of melodic molasses around the speakers, always on the verge of shorting out whatever power supply is readily available.
If this is indeed the next stage of Moore’s career rather than just another one-off project, it’s an assured, though sporadically underwhelming, soft launch.
What saves the thing is, well, Moore’s style is so ingrained that to some extent this really will start to sound more natural with time.
A four-piece rock band with his guitar playing and his distinctive voice will obviously sound like Sonic Youth, but this album is at times heavier and less complicated than them, and best of all it has a fire and an energy of its own that makes it well worth hearing.
The best thing is that after 30 years of kicking out the jams, he’s still making guitars scream in ecstasy.
Everything on Chelsea Light Moving that seems like a callback is really just another element of Moore’s style. This is Thurston Moore. The same artist people have loved for decades, just under a different guise.
While the cooperative/collaborative nature isn’t entirely clear, the personalities of Lubelski, Moloney, and Wood poke through and certainly push the music.
The record seems like a conscious attempt for Moore to get back to serious shredding, to move away from introspection and toward the immediate thrill of pummel and screech.
It's a lively, noisy semi-resurrection, even if 'Alighted' doesn't earn its seven-minute running time quite as well as 'The Sprawl'.
By attempting to give us what we want, and provide reassurance that the Sonic Youth legacy is in safe hands, Moore has somehow managed to make it look weaker and less appealing than it ever was.
#24 | / | The Fly |
#50 | / | Rough Trade |
#62 | / | Crack Magazine |