Trees Outside the Academy

Trees Outside the Academy is the second solo studio album by American musician Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. It was released on September 18, 2007, and was Moore's follow-up of 1995's Psychic Hearts. It was released on Moore's own label, Ecstatic Peace! and recorded with Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley and violinist Samara Lubelski.

Trees Outside the Academy
Studio album by Thurston Moore
Released	September 18, 2007 (2007-09-18)
Recorded	2007 Amherst, Massachusetts
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	46:07
Label	Ecstatic Peace!
Producer	John Agnello and Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore chronology
Psychic Hearts (1995) Trees Outside the Academy (2007) Demolished Thoughts (2011)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The A.V. Club	A−[3]
Robert Christgau	[4]
Pitchfork	7.9/10[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Stylus Magazine	C−[7]

The recording took place at Dinosaur Jr guitarist J. Mascis' home studio. Mascis also contributed lead guitar for some tracks. It features the track "Thurston @ 13" which is, "Some weird cassette tape that Thurston found at his mom's of him at 13 years old in the early '70s performing some kind of odd sound-theatre."

The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, barely missing the Billboard 200.

Track listing

All tracks by Thurston Moore.

1. "Frozen Gtr." – 4:07
2. "The Shape Is in a Trance" – 4:41
3. "Honest James" – 3:52
4. "Silver>Blue" – 5:52
5. "Fri/End" – 3:33
6. "American Coffin" – 3:58
7. "Wonderful Witches + Language Meanies" – 2:26
8. "Off Work" – 4:14
9. "Never Light" – 4:03
10. "Free Noise Among Friends" – 0:36
11. "Trees Outside the Academy" – 6:07
12. "Thurston@13" – 2:38

Personnel

• Thurston Moore – acoustic & electric guitars, bass, vocals, piano on track 6
• Steve Shelley – drums on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 & 11
• Samara Lubelski – violin on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 & 11
• J Mascis – lead guitar on tracks 1, 2, 7 & 11
• Gown – electric guitar on track 1 & 9
• John Moloney – drums on track 7
• Christina Carter – vocals on tracks 1 & 3
• Leslie Keffer – noise on track 8

Chart positions

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Belgian Albums Chart (Vl)[8]	47
French SNEP Albums Chart[9]	176
Norwegian Albums Chart[10]	18
US Billboard Heatseekers Albums[11]	6