Thank god somebody speaks sense!!:p To sum up the album; Sunday is one of their greatest songs ever; Hits of Sunshine is one of their worst, patience testing. The album goes off on these annoying things and rather than sounding cool it just sounds...urgh-to put it simply. This album and NYCG&F are my two worst Sonic Youth albums without a shadow of a doubt.

Also one of my top SY albums, along with Washing Machine (what a great period!). More far out than WM and definitely has a more vivid mood. I always think of the seasons when I listen to this. Hoarfrost is very snowy and wintery, Hit of Sunshine sounds like spring etc Really atmospheric stuff.

Snare Girl is probably my favourite SY ballad and along with Karen Koltrane and Sunday make up the top 3 tracks on 1000 leaves for me. The instrumentation on Snare Girl is amazing IMO - T's/K's droning guitar, L's distant loungy licks in the middle and Steve minimilist drumming = an amazing mood is achieved!

Karen Koltrane is definitely one of the Lee greats and one of the darkest SY yet - its pure Winter until the end when the season changes into spring with the chirpy interlocking guitar thing - amazing!!

Sunday is a really tasteful straight up track which I usually play people who aren't into SY - its oozes cool!

sunday is aye-mazing, there's a bunch of other great songs on ther, "its only a kitten" might be Kims finest lyric but over all this albums a snooze.

[quote=el duderino]Also one of my top SY albums, along with Washing Machine (what a great period!).[quote]


What the duderino above me said.

Lol, kimism.
Probably the most overrated 90's SY album. Still good though, I just think that it gets too much priase.

On the Fourth of July '99, the year after A Thousand Leaves came out, a bud of mine and our girlfriends went up to Gatlinsburg, TN, for the freaky sights of redneck carnivale and to stop by Dollywood.

Well, on the way up, buddy's jammin' the Whiskeytown/Steve Earle/Son Volt/Wilco alt-country thing hoggin' the cd player. It's his car and he's driving. So after gritting my teeth to Summerteeth for the umpteenth time, I finally get my turn with the SY disc. And I'm predictably met with despondency by all those in the car.
"Contre Le Sexisme" comes on and makes the others uneasy right away.
Later, everyone makes it clear the only one they like (scratch that) the only song they can even stand for more than a couple of minutes is "Sunday."

So why isn't "Sunday" first on A Thousand Leaves?

Because Sonic Youth doesn't make albums for those dunderheads, they make albums for Art...and appeal to people like me.

And I can imagine most here have had many experiences, as have I, with people being instantly turned-off by Sonic Youth.

I think the albums whole sound mood and design have a very trapped feel, despite many of the songs being long and drawn out.
It sounds and looks like it was made in some kind of mental institution.

I totally agree with you. The first song on the album sets the tone for the whole thing, and to kick things off with a really accessible rock song when the rest of the album isn't like that would be a mistake.

STarting off with a quieter, more abstract Kim number was a good idea. However, Contre le Sexisme is probably the only song on the album I find a true waste of time and would like to get rid of from the album completely. I would nominate "Female Mechanic on Duty" as the opening number. It even has the album name in the lyrics.

I'd say the album is a bit difficult but rewarding, I like it much more than Washing Machine actually.

amazing album

I was just listening to this album again over a good cup of Ethiopian coffee.. my lord it is a perfect and divine album. it takes to so many places, it is ethereal, transcendent, enrapturing.. Especially at moments like the erruption bridge/break down in middle of Female Mechanic on Duty, and again that same kind of eruptive transition from Wildflower Soul to Hoarfrost...

experimental, soundscape driven guitar music doesn't get any more subtly perfect then this, it is exactly what Sonic Youth does best, be it on sonic Death or near 10 years later on Daydream Nation, or 15 years after that with Sonic Nurse..

yer opinion on Ineffable me is disgusting....That song is fantastic...I love every second of it...

Man.. nowadays, I think this is their best album ever, probably, besides confusion. I am even into Kim's nightmare vox now.

atsonicpark deserves a salutation for making this post. Personally, I bought 1000leaves when it came out in 98 if I remember correctly. The albumn had a spring/summery vibe going on as I remember 102.1 in Toronto playing Sunday and announcing the new release. Yah, that albumn really reminded me of a newfound artistic maturity at the time. I remember listening to this albumn at an old friends house and my one friend basically skipped on the cd thru 'wildflower soul' to get to the guitar jam part. My other friend got offended by it, thinking it ruins the tune to skip thru the track. Haha. Anyway, I don't like either of those guys much anymore. This was in like 2000 or something. Makes me laugh now.

yes

and yes

So many good things here. I love how Heather Angel feels more of an idea than a song. The sudden ending is brilliant. The "oooh"s in the second verse of Karen Koltrane give me chills every time. The beat that develops at the end of Contre Le Sexisme is terrifying. How clean and noisy Wildflower Soul gets is why it was my favorite song for years. Kim's laughter in The Ineffable Me. The dreamlike ending of Female Mechanic Now On Duty. Lee's Hoarfrost. The joyous Snare, Girl. Hits of Sunshine for Carlo Marx. What an album!

French Tickler is a great tune, but compared to 9 of the others, it doesn't shine. I hardly ever listen to Sunday.

I used to really dislike the Kim songs on this album. Even though I still have to be in the mood for some of them, each song has grown on me some way or another.

Snare, Girl is pretty underrated.

actually I kind of think that these are some of kim's strongest vocal tunes..

hoarfrost is my favorite lee song next to genetic

I could be cute and point out that "Contre Le Sexisme" has the album name in the lyrics too. :p

The original track listing had "Ineffable Me" first, I believe. "Contre" was somewhere in the middle. "Snare" was last!

I disliked "Contre" for a long, long time, and perhaps that had some effect on my notorious opinion of the album itself. Don't know...but I like the track quite a lot now...though I rarely listen to this album in its entirety anymore (usually a side or two of vinyl rather than the CD from front to back). I dig that they decided to open the album with a piece snipped from a larger improvisation - it's basically just an injection of the SYR spirit into the lead-off track from the major label album! Then "Sunday" starts and everyone can breathe...for a few minutes...