Way back in 1995, Thurston Moore, the cool uncle of experimental indie rock, released an off-kilter but strangely accessible solo album called Psychic Hearts. Straying only slightly from the template of his day job, the only obvious differences were that Lee Ranaldo’s guitar sprawl had been replaced by Tim Foljahn’s minimal strums, and that Kim Gordon’s smoky vocal chords weren’t in the building.
    For his second Youth-less outing 12 years later, the shaggy-locked 49-year-old icon has taken a sharper left turn, stripping it all down to acoustic guitar, violin and voice. Moore, SY drummer Steve Shelley and violinist Samara Lubelski (of MV/EE) make up the core players on Trees Outside the Academy, although they are joined by J. Mascis and his blistering riffage on a few tracks (the album was recorded in his house, after all). Charalambides singer Christina Carter also joins Moore in a duet on the honey-sweet “Honest James.”
    This wouldn’t be an Ecstatic Peace! release without some divergence from tradition, and those come, at least partly, thanks to the other guest appearances. Sunburned Hand of Man’s John Moloney takes over for Shelley on “Wonderful Witches” with his manic percussion skills, which are matched by some Mascis fire. “Off Work” begins as a beguiling instrumental workout before the flurry of noise-waves from underground artist Leslie Keffer blows in. Then there’s “American Coffin,” a half-feedback buzz, half-melancholy piano jam, and “Free Noise Among Friends,” a 36-second track that sounds like frogs rigged up to electric chairs.
    Experimental indulgences aside, Trees is still a mellow, song-based collection that acts largely as a showcase for Moore’s stylings on the six-string and his detached, stream-of-consciousness singing. Opener “Frozen Gtr” is almost twangy in places, with the singer channelling Neil Young’s spirit as lulling strums spiral underneath. “The Shape is in a Trance” continues down this winding stream, with Moore intoning “I’m not the one they called, but I showed up anyway.” “Fri/End” is an up-tempo, uplifting number that includes both sides of Thurston’s lyric writing — sincere and abstract — with lines like “I’ll always be your friend/at least just ’till the end” and “rainbow resin/a sticky cyclone.”
    By the time the album reaches its six-minute title-track crescendo, the feeling captured is of travelling somewhere new, with an old friend as your guide. Trees is easily one of Moore’s most straightforward releases, but also one worthy of many return visits.