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  • Genre:

    Rock

  • Label:

    Caroline / Ecstatic Peace

  • Reviewed:

    March 23, 2017

The lead single from Moore’s upcoming LP, Rock n Roll Consciousness

The title of Thurston Moore’s new album, Rock n Roll Consciousness, suggests it will be a tour around his mind and the four decades he’s helped shape the musical form. The retro-tinted haze of “Smoke of Dreams” is like a trip through Moore’s past—recalling mid-period Sonic Youth and nodding to the band’s to most divisive album (“New York City is everything / See the ghosts dance“) What’s best about “Smoke of Dreams” is how bears Moore’s particular songwriting signature. He opens with a simple, wiry guitar line and melancholy singing to match. Then he slowly expands the tune into a chiming jam propelled by Steve Shelley’s steady drumming. By the end, “Smoke of Dreams” scales back down to quiet vocals, so subdued they’re hard to make out. He seems to be combing wistfully through his memories, and the bittersweet tone is entrancing.