Despite being smack dab in the middle of all the hysteria, Sonic Youth never quite fit in with the grunge era. The band was too obsessed with angular noises to fit the criteria of the genre. Yes, Dirty had a grinding backbeat, but no, it was not grunge. Guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo were too experimental.
Sonic Youth went back to challenging territory with Washing Machine and it continued with A Thousand Leaves in 1998. Sexy and cool vocalist/bass player Kim Gordon starts the record off with a nice soft hush in "Contre le Sexisme" and that continues into "Sunday," one of the few real rockers on the double LP. Sonic Youth fills a lot of space over 74 minutes of Leaves, but there is nare a boring moment in sight. Ranaldo and Moore concentrate on quiet material most of the time, but it has a captivating warmth to it.
Fans might be astonished by the length of the record (three songs over nine minutes), but the music holds the attention. Moore and Ranaldo get into a guitar squall battle on "Karen Koltrane" and then Gordon comes in with some political rants on "The Ineffable Me," with Ranaldo and Moore noodling like it's their day job in the background.
A Thousand Leaves has the twists and turns of other Sonic Youth albums of the past, but the sounds are something completely new. It's a engaging listen that's worth the time.
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