Rock N Roll Consciousness
Caroline International
2017
Rating: 7.5 hell youths out of 10
Thurston Moore, best known as the front man of Sonic Youth, has been known to get weird on some of his solo material. To be honest, too weird for me a lot of the time...but that's not the case with "Rock N Roll Consciousness." Maybe it was his split with Kim Gordon and the seeming end of one of the greatest indie rock bands of all time, but now instead of using his solo platform as an outlet for his more esoteric musical thoughts, it has apparently become the repository of what would have been Sonic Youth songs if the band still existed. Pretty much every track here could have been featured on any album Sonic Youth released since the "Dirty" era, but especially their early oughts material like "Murray Street." Hell, Steve Shelley even plays some (or all?) of the drums on this, so with two of the four members of the band involved it's as much a Sonic Youth record as it isn't. The best song for my money is "Cease Fire," which technically isn't on the album unless you snag a Japanese version (and I think it might also be available when downloading), so seek this version out. If you told me "Cease Fire" was a lost 20 year old classic by the band I wouldn't have questioned it for even a second.
Your only decision when deciding if this album is for you is figuring out how much you want to hear a new Sonic Youth record, regardless of the name on the front cover. A damn good new Sonic Youth record at that.
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