Sonic Youth have always had a classier side, but they usually show it on avant-noise collaborations with guys like John Cage or Steve Reich. On his fourth solo disc, SY main man Thurston Moore pursues a softer sort of refinement. Produced by Beck, this is string-laden, serenely pretty chamber folk that can be politely ruminative or drone like Sonic Youth doing an unplugged set. On "Circulation," Moore brings front-porch thunder in an ode to playing old records, as if the new setting has him rediscovering music itself.
Listen to "Circulation":
100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Number 34: Thurston Moore
