The cover art of Thurston Moore's second solo LP, the effortlessly hip Trees Outside The Academy, shows the sonic axe-master in veteran garb: head-cocked and plugged in. It's more than slightly disingenuous given the much-anticipated follow-up to Psychic Hearts (1995) is a predominantly acoustic set, the former amp brutalizer levelled on a flattop and resolutely un-loud, his Watt guzzling cockles reined in lieu of honey-dirge sweetness and the Rolling Thunder strings of violinist Samara Lubelski. It does nothing to carbonize the classic rawk image fostered on the blow-outs of Sister (1987), the much-maligned Experimental Jet Set (1994) and as recently as last year's clamorous return to the noize, Rather Ripped. Sure, J. Mascis does rear his Jurassic nubbins a fair few times (the album was recorded in his home studio) for some ear-splitting peals, but where Trees Outside the Academy really works is in its subdued levels, how its knowing acoustic-ness points out and accentuates depths of feeling and sincere charity heretofore obscured by static in Moore's work. It feels, and sounds, like a leap to core values: standout "Fri / End" may still cast a light on Thurst the Subverse ("Never leave ya alone / Harsh palindrome"), but ultimately wins us all over with its rolling rhythms and hypnotic melodicism, the comfortable inter-play between violin and guitar in the cool refrain. It's a great song, strung-out breathless and fidgeting on the ambiguous line between the insularity and exploding-myths optimism that has come to mark Moore's work, with the Youth or otherwise, as in a special class of its own.

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