Chelsea Light Moving

When Sonic Youth somewhat unexpectedly bowed out after 2009's The Eternal, Thurston Moore could have played out his next musical chapter with an unbound avalanche of esoteric collaborations and festival appearances. Instead, he resurfaced in 2011 with a lovely, Beck-produced solo album, Demolished Thoughts, and now with a new band of old friends who appear to have been listening to Sonic Youth. Chelsea Light Moving borrows most heavily from the golden era between Daydream Nation and Goo, with non-linear art rock tropes colliding with fuzzy guitar cudgels. Both come to blows on "Empires of Time" and "Frank O'Hara Hit," to great results, while Thurston's occasional teenage punk influence fully rears its mohawk on "Lip" and "Communist Eyes." It's all a tad by the book, but the book is well loved and worth re-reading, so why not? It's actually pleasant to discover Sonic Youth hadn't become a leash that Thurston occasionally slipped on to stay culturally visible, but a big love in his musical life.