A Thousand Leaves

Sonic Youth | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 12, 1998)
• Original Release Date: May 12, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000006P0F
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,082 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The ageless Sonic Youth return with a new, yet familiar, excursion into their own particular brand of ultra-amplified, dissonant rock. The quartet's CD A Thousand Leaves evokes fond memories of yesteryear's noisy, now-classic, avant-garde approach, while retaining snippets of traditional pop elements heard on several of their previous major-label releases. As Sonic Youth's music has gained a larger audience, they've preserved doses of the crunched melody and meandering structure that has always been their trademark. The new release sounds relatively unabashed, with wandering songs like "Female Mechanic Now on Duty" spewing extended barrages of feedback and Kim Gordon's dry, unsettling scowls at the listener. Look deeper, however, and there's a quiet resonance among the racket, with tracks like "Sunday" and "Snare, Girl" making use of Thurston Moore's cooler vocal tone and jagged, cascading guitar passages. --Matthew Cooke

Product Description

SONIC YOUTH A THOUSAND LEAVES

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Their best album; a true masterpiece, February 28, 1999

By 

Justin Oser - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Thousand Leaves (Audio CD)

I have almost every Sonic Youth album, including their supposed best "Sister" and "Daydream Nation" and this blows the rest of them away. It has lots of noise, which I love, but some of the best stuff on here has no noise. "Hoarfrost" is the most beautiful Sonic Youth song (maybe any song) I've ever heard, "Snare, Girl" is also quite beautiful. If you like albums full of songs that aren't afraid to go on for as long as it takes to make a complete song (the average song on here is almost seven minutes) and a good balance of noise and beauty, this is the album for you. I don't know if they'll ever top this one, but I can only hope their next album will.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sonic Youth's modern masterpiece..., May 25, 2002

By 

Aron Hsiao (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Thousand Leaves (Audio CD)

Along with Washing Machine, A Thousand Leaves is a clear indication that Sonic Youth have transcended the barriers of punk, noise, avant-garde, etc. and have become coincident with the core of modern music and modern lyric poetry across all genres and forms. A Thousand Leaves, sporting long, autumnal, melodic meditations like Hits of Sunshine and Wildflower Soul along ennui-laden snapshots like Hoarfrost and Sunday, is a kind of symphony for the pop/rock age and is as deep and haunting as anything the classicists ever scribbled down on paper.

Now, I've heard and read any number of reviews referring to A Thousand Leaves as 'more experimental' and 'not very pop oriented' but of course these phrases are coming from the mouths of those that do not know much of the history of Sonic Youth or much of truly experimental music. Neubauten's 'Drawings of Patient O.T.' it's not -- in fact, I wouldn't refer to A Thousand Leaves as 'experimental' music in any sense of the word... But by the same token, if you're looking for hooks, hooks, hooks or the McDonald's-style music that SY cashed in with (and more power to them) during the 'grunge era' then this isn't the album for you.

If you own Sister and Daydream Nation, however, or even just Washing Machine, and listen to them all the time, unable to keep from tapping your feet and swaying just a little... Then A Thousand Leaves is another perfect Sonic Disc for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, the first album by Sonic Youth that could be described as beautiful, July 31, 2005

By 

Chet Fakir (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Thousand Leaves (Audio CD)

Thuston Moore as the sentimental, warm, yet world broken artist, Kim Gordon the deconstructionist rocker and Lee Renaldo as the visionary beat poet? Hmmm, perhaps, though the roles are somewhat interchangable. This is a stellar album no matter how you break it down. Melodic, disonant, angry, sad and for the first time warm and beautiful. Sonic Youth continue the trend of introspective song writing begun with Washing Machine but they do it better on this album. Some may say that on some songs they lost their edge, I'd say they broadened their pallette (and extended their songs) Their musicianship and muse continues to change and grow. A very strong and emotional effort.