After a 30 year stint of being at the forefront of the US alternative noise-rock scene, and following a split between husband Thurston Moore and wife Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth called a halt in 2011; the view being that if Moore and Gordon could somehow be in the same room together making music again, then the band might just fire back in to life.

In the meantime, Moore has some rock'n'roll in his blood that needs nourishing and, following 2014's The Best Day album, he's back for more, such is the insatiable spirit that lies behind this iconic alt-rocker, a veteran now aged 58.

With Rock N Roll Consciousness Moore sticks with the same lineup as his previous album – Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine bassist), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth drummer) and James Sedwards (Nought, Chrome Hoof et al) – and once again digs into that Sonic Youth-orientated sound, finding a new-found consistency over just the five, mostly long, tracks here.

That sound was built on a range of alternative guitar tunings, a relentless rhythmic drive that would often crescendo towards a fearsome wall of sound (which My Bloody Valentine pretty much perfected by the late 80s), a penchant for alternating quiet-loud segments, and the occasional burst of slacker singing. Crucially, within the cacophony and abrasiveness of the Sonic Youth sound, there lay tunes and melodies, giving form and substance to the ears of many, ultimately allowing for (almost) mass appeal.

Moore isn't deviating from that much here – although gone are the days when Sonic Youth would produce radio-friendly tuneage – and certainly the musical heights reached by his previous band aren't touched either, and there is less of a wilfully DIY punk sound. But, still, comparisons can be futile, and a little misleading and, taken on its own, Rock N Roll Consciousness is the sort of record that only a wisened old veteran could make. The standalone single, 'Ceasefire', released just prior to the album (and which inexplicably is not included here) was a turbo-charged call for non-violent protest and love in a world of turmoil, rising passions and anger. Although the five tracks that make up the album continue that theme, there's a palpable sense of a new age quality to the lyrics, a mysticism of sorts equating to the visceral rock’n’roll experience; subjects such as the power of the mind, occultism, and love explored lyrically for the most part by poet Radio Radieux, someone whom Moore collaborated for an art installation in Salford earlier this year.

Song titles such as ‘Exalted’ and ‘Aphrodite’ point us in the direction of this new found lyrical direction, but the music remains largely as it always has been, even if the pieces are longer in length and more epic in scope. For instance the 12 minute ‘Exalted’ is a mini-rock symphony of several movements; a typically sparse and repetitive beginning, with just arpeggio guitar, and tinkled cymbals, before it morphs into a sequence of rhythmic chords with a distant snare beat for accompaniment. The bass imperceptibly tracks the guitar, the song slowly building before Moore (or Sedwards) delivers a melodic solo, the whole vibe reminiscent of parts of Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’, before some thunderous doom chords barge in, eventually accompanied by some manic guitar strumming, before quietening down, vocals appearing for about just one minute of the whole track, before things wind down towards just plucked guitar strings and cymbals. It’s a mood piece, like a classical symphony, the band responding to each other as in a jam of sorts, but punctuated by mystic lyrics such as: “She is the future, and the prophetess. Also oracle, spaced out in timelessness.”

Similarly, ‘Turn On’ is long and symphonic in scope. Again, simple arpeggio guitar, and progressive chord sequences that display his career-long penchant for melancholy and discordant nuances sitting together in the mix. And again, the song then segues into a more straight ahead rocker with more slashing guitar rhythms, before changing direction a couple more times, quite-loud moments, a guitar solo here, a one note groove there, before exploding in a riot of Dinosaur Jr-style melodic grunge.

Elsewhere, ‘Cusp’ is relentlessly propulsive, dark and light shades of heavily rhythmic guitar interplay underpinned by driving bass and rolling snare drums, all-in-all finding ways to create nuances and layers within the metronomic beats. And ‘Smoke of Dreams’ is the most rootsy offering here, beginning with some Neil Young/Crazy Horse dual guitar on the most gentle offering on the album.

Is the album an expression of Moore's own rock'n'roll consciousness, of where he is right now? A late 50-something avant rocker with a legendary but now-defunct band behind him? Is he looking backwards or, reinvigorated, looking forwards? Probably all that and more, as our collective consciousnesses are nothing if not a cumulation of all that has happened, as well as thoughts, hopes and fears for what may happen, with the saviour that is rock’n’roll at the heart of the conversation. “Turn On”, sings Moore. “Turn it up all the way, to hear you come and save the day… turn it on to take us out of here.”
Jeff Hemmings

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