A Thousand Leaves is the tenth studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on CD and cassette on May 12, 1998, by DGC Records. A double-LP vinyl issue had been released three weeks earlier (April 21, 1998) on My So Called Records. It was the band's first album recorded at their own studio in Lower Manhattan, which was built with the money they had made at the 1995 Lollapalooza festival. Since the band had an unlimited amount of time to work in their studio, the album features numerous lengthy and improvisational tracks that were developed unevenly. The highly experimental extended plays Anagrama, Slaapkamers met slagroom, and Invito al ĉielo were recorded simultaneously with the album.
A Thousand Leaves reached number 85 on the US Billboard 200 and number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the lengthy, quiet guitar interplay between band members Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. However, some criticized the forced vocal delivery of member Kim Gordon and found several tracks to be unnecessarily long and poorly constructed. The song "Sunday" was released as a single with a music video directed by Harmony Korine and starring American actor Macaulay Culkin.
Background and recording
A Thousand Leaves is the follow-up to Sonic Youth's 1995 album Washing Machine, which was released shortly after the band concluded their stint headlining the 1995 Lollapalooza music festival. With the money they had made at the festival, the band decided to build a recording studio, called Echo Canyon, on Murray Street in Lower Manhattan. The span of nearly three years between Washing Machine and A Thousand Leaves also represented the longest gap between studio albums in Sonic Youth's career at the time. Singer and guitarist Thurston Moore explained that the band needed a break, noting that they had been touring non-stop for 16 years. He said, "We're having children, we're getting older, let's just cool out a little bit and build this workshop, and go that way, work that route." In their new studio, the band began writing new songs from extended improvisations in rehearsal. Several instrumental jams were released as extended plays through the band's own record label, Sonic Youth Recordings, and distributed by Smells Like Records, an independent record label previously formed by drummer Steve Shelley. These include Anagrama, Slaapkamers met slagroom and Invito al ĉielo.
Since A Thousand Leaves was the first Sonic Youth album that was recorded in their own studio, the band had more time and freedom to work on it. As a result, the songs evolved unevenly and were recorded from an early stage of development. According to guitarist Lee Ranaldo, the album is "a reflection of where we were at the time. We weren't into making anything concise. We were just playing what we felt like playing. We really didn't feel like what we needed to be doing was producing another record like Goo." The 11-minute song "Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)" was initially intended to be released on one of the EPs as an instrumental track, but it was ultimately included on the album with vocals. The album was co-produced by the band and Confusion Is Sex producer Wharton Tiers and mastered by Greg Calbi at Masterdisk in New York City.
Music and lyrics
Musically, A Thousand Leaves was considered more expansive and relaxed than previous Sonic Youth albums, with less feedback and more guitar playing and improvisation. According to David Browne, the record explored post-rock sounds that were "subtler" and "quirkier" than most mainstream rock at the time. The title of the album was inspired by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. According to Moore, "The same way he improvises with images and words, we improvise with sounds and notes". He also attributed the style of the album to the fact that the band was getting older, commenting, "You also become much involved with your thoughts about life experience in general. Having children is incredible in that way." The song "Snare, Girl" explored these topics. The longest song on the album, "Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)", referenced American poet Allen Ginsberg and contains an instrumental interlude that was described as "a subtle, drawn-out passage of Morse code guitar lines and lazy afternoon with wah-wah pedal licks—bliss in slow motion."