Thurston Moore
Flow Critical Lucidity
80点ぞろい
What Thurston Moore brought to Sonic Youth was, in part, a mysterious fogged-window view of the world, along with a poetic mysticism informed by heroes as far back as the Beat Generation but also tapping into the inextinguishable spirit of punk. Moore's solo albums zero in on these attributes, as he uses detuned guitars, dreamlike sonic meditations, and unfettered noise to make contact with a particular spirit world of his own divination. Flow Critical Lucidity is the ninth proper solo album from Moore, and its seven songs tie together all his strengths with subtlety and a quiet, almost ritualistic power. In the past, Moore has collaborated with writer/poet Radieux Radio on various efforts, and here Radio pens the lyrics for the entirety of the album. This pairing is highly complementary, as Radio's counterculture referencing and ether-combing descriptions of otherworldly scenes are of a similar mind as Moore's have been in the past. The whispering tension of opening track "New in Town" places hand-drum rhythms and twinkling guitar dissonance alongside lyrics that capture a feeling of youthful excitement when a new face enters a small, closely knit scene. Drawn-out, moody tracks like "Hypnogram" and "Sans Limites" (the latter of which features a brief guest vocal spot from Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier) are great examples of the slow-burning and eerie style Moore has perfected over the years, with long stretches that reach and hover but never quite resolve, leaving the same impression as waking from a fitful dream. My Bloody Valentine's Deb Googe plays bass throughout the album, and Negativland member Jon Leidecker contributes electronics, sometimes creating a spiral of bubbling uneasiness (as with the foreboding prepared-guitar clouds of "We Get High") and other times converging into far more straightforward grooves (as on the Can-informed, rubber-ball bounce of "Rewilding").