A Thousand Leaves is Kim's Absolute Finest Hour.
 

(About 73mins actually.)

You know it's true. She is Monufuckingmental on all (6?...it's been a while) of "her" songs on this record. If you took her Thousand Leaves songs and put them into an EP, it would be the Greatest Kim Gordon EP Ever Imagineable.

IDK if Thurston wrote some of those songs that she sings on A Thousand Leaves, but even if he did, Kim's "performance" of them makes them hers. Absolute fucking brilliant peak of Kimness. I shudder just thinking about it.

Discuss.

Oh God, no. Kim's vocals on ATL (and Washing Machine) came close to driving me away from the band for good.

"The Ineffable Me" has her best singing. Of course, it doesn't sound pretty or anything, but it works the most out of her aggressive stuff. I think it's that a lot of people have this stereotype "She's a girl, she should sound pretty." Yet she has this ugly punk ethic going on, that if a guy were to do it, it wouldn't be criticized nearly as much. I don't normally buy into the riot grrrl bullshit, but I think at least when it comes to HOW she sings, she's making a well-intentioned statement: Girls don't always have to have beautiful voices.

Awful singing is awful singing, regardless of the singer's gender. Maybe all the screaming in childbirth fucked up Kim's vocal chords.

I'd suggest that Yoko Ono was more influential on Kim's singing during this period than any riot grrrrrl. The riot grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl influence lasted for one album - EJSTNS - and was gone.

mmm she's more than often off key on ATL but it didn't bother me. It's part of the atmosphere i guess. Amazing LP all round, wow. I listened to this TO DEATH, a million times, on and on.

ATL is way overrated by fans.

As if The Eternal already isn't..

And even that was a great album!

Sorry, I forgot that Incubus clearly are better than anything Sonic Youth have done.

Yeah, Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star is fantastic. I don't get why it gets bashed so much, all the songs seem good to me. Seriously, Bull In The Heather, Sweet Shine, Starfield Road, Bone?? Awesome tracks.

But back to the topic, A Thousand Leaves is indeed a great album (maybe in my top5), and yeah Kim sounds awesome on it, but I don't think it's the best thing she's done; actually, I'd consider Sonic Nurse as including her best sounding vocals. I Love You Golden Blue and Dude Ranch Nurse especially are impressing. So is Pattern Recognition. Damn I love this record - damn I love this band :D

Elitist posts such as these have tremendous humor value, I swear. I may love Sonic Youth, but Incubus have just as much talent as SY, if not more than. Or are you too "cool" to listen to them?

Yeah Kim is ace on Nurse.

I used to listen to Incubus a lot when I was 12. Probably my first favourite band. My friend insists on listening to them when we're smokin' and they're pretty good for that, especially their earlier material when they were high all the time. But there are just leagues of better bands out there.

You aren't one to talk with your constantly gushing praise of paragraphs long posts dedicated to music.
Ahah. Kidding. Or am I.

Anyhow, back on topic (kind of), yeah Kim's vocals on Sonic Nurse are probably her best, outside of EVOL. I love her singing on "Shadow of a Doubt" and "Star Power".

Quick edit, sway.

Also lol @ elitist posts. Where do you think you are?

Kim's singing reminds me of Patti Smith so much, I see her as an influence more than anyone else. Definitely not Yoko Ono.

You know, I just thought like I'd elaborate on the Incubus/Sonic Youth thing, just a teensy bit. I love Incubus because they just write great pop music. I would say the most important thing in a band, any band, is to have a pop songwriting aesthetic to them. The most popular "noisy" shit does this, even. Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth. Really, unless it's just the kinda thing you're pre-disposed to, no one is going to like a song that doesn't contain a pop hook. Sonic Youth themselves realized this with Daydream Nation. You can still be as noisy as you want, but if there isn't something there to make people bob their heads or tap their feet or hum along, then the majority of people aren't going to give a shit. "Rain King" for an example of that I'd think.

But yeah, enough rambling.

Incubus are one of those bands that I absolutely cannot tolerate listening to.

I'm not the one who brought up Incubus in the first place, you two childishly did, so hey, I'm just defending a perfectly decent band.

Yeah and see I'm one of those persons. I don't know much of drone music, but the little I've heard, I adore. I didn't say ALL music needs a pop hook, just, unless you are VERY damn good at writing music that is driven more by atmosphere than melody, then don't even attempt to do so, you know?

There is a place for both, really. Just depends in what mood you're in. I think if there is a person who listens to only atmosphere-driven music, or only pop-driven music, then that kind of person is sort of sheltered musically. I think I've said this before on this board, but I think My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is the perfect blend of both worlds, and it would be nice to find more music like that (not a Loveless sound-a-like, just something with the same marriage there.)

Then again that's the reason A Thousand Leaves is my favorite Sonic Youth album soooo... haha