Agreed. Tape and Vocabularies definitely are tracks that didn't make it onto DT. I'm not that crazy about Tape but Vocabularies is nice. Though I'm not particularly fond of most of the songs on the album. I think that the first song, Speak to the Wild is the best, and upon listening to it, it had me really excited for the rest of the album but I'm disappointed with it overall. Grace Lake is decent too, I guess. I'm still excited for the shows at Saint Vitus and Rough Trade that I'm going to but I hope that the sets are a little longer than the shows he just played out on the West Coast. What I don't understand is why he doesn't play songs from Trees.

Just a note, thinking Thurston's solo shit is boring is not inherently the same as saying, "Thurston sucks."

I wish there would have been more songs like Tape and Vocabularies. For being such a man of words, I'm surprised there's only 8 songs.

I concur. I think that there's less of a degree of lyrical minimalism on The Best Day compared to Chelsea Light Moving but I really wish he would go back to songs more like those on Trees and Demolished Thoughts.

Disagree, more Speak To The Wild, Forevermore, etc...
Acoustic style is boring, perfect for in-ear music whenever needing some sleep. Best solo-effort in a while... Looking forward to see him again live

Is it just me, or is the mastering/compression really horrendous?

Perhaps I'm not listening to a legit 320.

^^Here you can have my copy: just copy and paste this link (internet@goals) into your internet browser then turn all your house lights off, turn them back on in the same order you turned them off and you should be good to go.

A joke without humour is a pointless exercise indeed.

You call that a joke? THIS is a joke..

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it wanted to.

Pointless? I think not.

I enjoyed the hell out of this on first listen.

The videoclip for 'Speak To The Wild': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0bsQ-rqsxc

I bought vinyl version yesterday and liked it. Detonation is probably the weakest song on the album. The rest is good (or even better) stuff. I don't care if some songs are leftovers from Demolished Thoughts, what does matter is how they sound. I like Tape & Vocabularies, these songs widen the material in this album.

My vinyl came in yesterday (with signed poster)! I definitely enjoyed it. Caught me on the first listen which I couldn't really say for CLM, not to say I don't like CLM. Disappointed that Detonation was the version on the 7", but the way Germs Burn worked into Grace Lake was a treat.

I'm ready to listen again.

i like best day , also i liked his CLM work, it's not easy for someone who spent 30 years in band ( and leading that band ) and get creativity to do "solo" albuns.

I got also vinyl today with signed poster (they send me also Body/head 7" same day)! It seems Thurston really have wanted to show all his sides in this album, but I think he didn´t totally succeed. During the Speak of the Wild I really thought this could be the best outside sy-album, I even started to think this could be SY-album. I liked also a lot Forevermore, it´s kind of big brother of Frozen gtr, there happen very little but it carries very great through the whole eleven minutes (very strange & interesting choise to put this song second in the album, I think in many albums this would be the last song). And the third great song is Vocabularies, the rest is just good. Even I liked the album, I think this is the weakest Thurston-album. Of course my opinion can change after more listening, but I don´t think so. The nearest of Sy & the greatest solos are still Coming Apart, Last Night On Earth & the Only Way To Go is Straight through IMO.

From interviews i've heard, I understand Thurston wanting this to be his songs/compositions and choosing telling his supporting band "what/how to play". But i kinda want something w/ more diplomacy from him again... I know very little of Sedwards or those bands he was/is in... I definitely sense he's holding back in his guitar playing, i can tell he could just let loose.

Trees has songs in a different tuning thus requiring him to either retune his guitar or bring multiple guitars i bet he's not fond of doing either much these days. They will probably work in some other stuff that is in either CGDGCD or CGDGBB, which leaves mostly psychic hearts songs. The early formation of this band before Deb Googe was playing i think they played a CLM song, Heaven Metal that was on youtube.

I listened years ago Thurston interview where he told how Sy-members twisted his songs almost unidentified. Well maybe that explains why Sy sounds much more better than Thurston´s solos. It seems he himself is quite lazy to do any arrangements to his songs. Best day sounds still yesterday to my second listening more like demos of songs than final songs. Maybe also Body/Head sounds so great cause Gordon & Nace equally make music.

Does anybody know some background information about this mom (and dad)-theme of Best Day? There is also picture of Thurston´s mom in Demolished Thoughts.

yeah, I was wondering as well. as i've seen in one of the youtube vid. from his live performance of speak to the wild, where he said before that song that this album is dedicated to his mom.

I'm not saying I understand it, but it does seem a bit odd to me that the positivity of The Best Day and the images of Thurston's parents seem to be associated with the happiness Thurston has found in his new life in the UK. But we shouldn't critique Thurston's personal life, what is most important is the new album and his new band are really great, the new songs and the Psychic Hearts material sound awesome live. Not sure if it has been talked about here but there is also a tape called Sun Gift Earth that is being sold on the current tour...

The new album by Thurston Moore ISN'T great. That crap Lee Ranaldo is doing on acoustic guitar IS NOT great either. Kim is doing good with Body/Head but it's not Sonic Youth standards. These people are creatively incapable of making brilliant music by themselves.

Coming Apart is better than anything Sonic Youth did after Jim left. So is The Best Day.

I was on board for Between the Times and the Tides but lost interest in Lee's solo projects after that. I've been on team Body/Head - they beat the hell out of Chelsea Light Moving. Then seeing Thurston and his new band live exceeded my expectations and sparked an interest in Thurston's solo work again.

this is the closest I've ever felt to you on music stuff man. I actually like this album quite a bit. Though I honestly think that Leaves Outside The Academy is my favorite T solo album. Followed close by Psychic Hearts. That said, I keep checking out their post-SY work and none of it grabs me in any serious way. The best I can muster is "ah yeah it almost sounds like SY." There's certain bands where what made them perfect was the sum of their parts. The tug-o-war between each member to make this perfect diamond. And that was SY. At this point I'm even just hoping for new archival releases to keep me happy. It's honestly just sad to me. Again I like this album. But it's not what I really want.

Of course Thurston´s personal life is none of my business, but I don´t also quite understand why he started already in Demolished Thoughts put pictures of his close relatives in the albums (there is also picture of Coco in DT). I don´t really know about his personal life, but I got the picture he´s not the one who tell everything in his life public. Of course those pictures look just fine in the Best Day. Just got thoughts are his parents ill or are they recently died or something...

he broke up one family and is nostalgia hunting for that feeling again?

stophereyes you should really check out Lee second album. Better than the first. Lee's second album is the highlight of the post SY work. Just listening to The Best Day is up there as well. Some great moments on this one.

Both Lee Ranaldo's albums post-Sonic Youth records are complete and utter SHIT. You guys are living out rock and roll fantasies where someone will come along and make it right. These people have been creatively dead for a long time now. Reverence is all they make their revenue out of.

That's the thing. So much of the post-SY solo stuff sounds to me like a pretty good demo for what could have been a way better SY song. Songs in one hand feel empty compared to what would have been added by the rest.

I think even Kim said something in an interview about how Body/Head isn't Sonic Youth, and nothing will be... it goes without saying that none of these new projects compare to Sonic Youth's best work.

Interesting interview, thanks!

If Sonic Youth is dead & its members' creativity so offensively depleted, why do you still post here? Do you have no other outlet for your righteous negativity?

Repped

This is not the Lee Ranaldo forum nor the Thurston Moore forum, (it may be the Steve Shelley forum, drummers can do no wrong).

It is the Sonic Youth forum. I will frequent it forever because they are my Beatles, my Sex Pistols, my *shudder* Nirvana, but If we do not have the ability to rag on things we think suck then what is the point?

This is not the "let's all put flowers in sonic youth's anus" forum.....

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rob Instigator again.

I must spread some Reputation around before giving it to shirttail again.

preach

If you get offended by comments someone makes about a record by a member of a band, why are public forums created for them in the first place then? I find it a more negative attitude when someone responds to such comments implying that the offender must live a grand life putting down stuff in general because of some non-defined personal confidence they may gain from their actions. What you're doing is applying your judgemental ability to suit your views and give the impression to the person who puts the criticism of x band forward that you are not mature enough to process it and not influence your opinions at all because you disagree anyway.