The final albums by bands often have a fascinating quality about them that has nothing to do with the music contained inside. It's tempting to throw the lyrics across a table like owl bones and try to read coded messages about a break-up or inter-band acrimony. At the same time, it's also tempting to compare the final album to the subsequent solo material and/or side projects of the former band members. Would the band have naturally headed in those directions, or did it take the end of the band and a "clean slate" mindset to create those changes??
Terror Twilight has a reputation that has nothing to do with the music. Fans see in the lyrics from 'Ann Don't Cry' Stephen Malkmus's farewell to the band--"I am not having fun anymore"--while a literal farewell was in the alternate title for the album (according to The Slow Century DVD, a working title was Farewell Horizontal). However, I've never bought the assertion I see sometimes that this is a proto-Malkmus solo album. Though all the songs are written by Malkmus, there is still that distinct Pavement-ness to the album; in fact, despite the production of Nigel Godrich, it's actually more unhinged and off-the-cuff than Brighten The Corners.
Coming at the end of the 90s and the end of the band's lifetime, Terror Twilight is their secret masterpiece. I would wager that as time has gone on, and continues to go on, more and more people will come around to it. As it's the band's last album, it's had too much stigma attached to it for people to peel back those surface layers and get to the meat beneath. That is to say, it's the band's most overtly psychedelic and 60s inspired album. For the video for 'Shady Lane', Malkmus's vision for director Spike Jonze was to create something that was "psychedelic but not retro." That vision, it seems to me, was carried over to the Terror Twilight album.
In many ways, too, Terror Twilight is like a mini-Wowee Zowee in terms of its variety. The MOR pop ballad 'Major Leagues'--which I initially hated and have only recently come around to, thanks to its sublime "they'll wear you down sometime" bit--butts up against the dense, three-part, bluesy (no pun intended) 'Platform Blues', with harmonica soloing from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. Elsewhere, the cool, groovy 'Speak, See, Remember' (the one song that even people who don't seem to like Terror Twilight will admit is awesome) gives way to the the intense guitar meltdown 'The Hexx' (the first of many Malkmus long jams that either end or help bring an album to a close), which then gives way to the impossibly catchy 'Carrot Rope', complete with overlapping sing-along vocals.
Pavement's album covers, lyrics, and music have always been odd and sitting outside the mainstream, but Terror Twilight pushes the whole thing into 'psychedelic.' For instance, 'Spit On A Stranger' is about kissing another person for the first time, though you would really have to think about it to understand that. With these skewed lyrical nuggets comes a more overtly psychedelic/60s inspired sound. Though some of this credit must be given to producer Nigel Godrich, who had Radiohead's OK Computer from 1997 and Beck's Mutations from 1998 under his belt (two albums that have similar psychedelic/60s leanings), Malkmus must take the main brunt of the credit/blame for this album. Guitar effects pedals and mostly-subtle squiggling and burbling keyboards are used prominently alongside clean guitars with slight reverb. At the same time, some of the songs are Malkmus's most ambitious, like the aforementioned 'Platform Blues' and 'Speak, See, Remember.' Watching the band play these songs live in The Slow Century DVD, you get the feeling that Malkmus broke up the band partially because they simply weren't tight and practiced enough to do these justice. It simply wasn't in Pavement to have that much discipline; in the same DVD, bassist Mark Ibold points out that he sings on 'Carrot Rope' but they don't play it live because he couldn't teach himself to play bass and sing at the same time.
I will concede that Terror Twilight isn't their best album. That title rightfully belongs to one of their first three depending on your taste. However, Terror Twilight also isn't as mediocre as people have been saying since its release. While Brighten The Corners needs a reissue to help flesh out its era and give it some context, Terror Twilight is the album that people need to return to without the baggage of context. If you merely listen to it and let it reveal itself for what it is, you'll find a lot to like here.
Of all the Pavement albums most in need of reevaluation and re-contextualizing via the deluxe reissue treatments Matador has been giving Pavement for the past half decade, Brighten The Corners is at the top of my list, followed by Terror Twilight. While I have a clear picture of what Terror Twilight is and what the band were trying to achieve, I also know that there were a myriad of b-sides and Spiral Stairs songs left off that will provide for rich grist when the time comes for its 2 CD rebirth.
What I can't quite grasp is much about Brighten The Corners. Its era (1996 through early 1998) is easily the most undiscussed and unknown period in Pavement's history; things seem to kind of stop at the end of the Wowee Zowee era with the release in January 1996 of the Pacific Trim EP and pick up again in the summer of 1998, with the recording sessions for Terror Twilight, which is also a time when Stephen Malkmus began to do solo shows and was quickly, then slowly, then quickly on his way to breaking up the band toward the end of 1999. Watching The Slow Century DVD you would hardly know Brighten The Corners is released, other than the five or so minutes it's given where Stephen Malkmus mentions that with the album they were trying to show more of their classic rock and REM influences.
Yet even with that Rosetta Stone the album itself is a bit of a slippery thing to nail down. It's Pavement's most mature album in many ways, from the mostly mannered songs and arrangements to the lyrical subjects that frequently mention marriage, growing old, and changes in general. It also is their most accessible by virtue of the fact that there are no noise bursts or screaming; even their other "my parents might like this" album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, had stuff like 'Hit The Plane Down.' So, then, Brighten The Corners is their classic rock/REM album...but it's Pavement's take on this aesthetic, so it's odd and still too strange for the mainstream audience it should have/was trying to appeal to.
We need to keep in mind that, during 1996 and 1997, people were again predicting the death of rock and roll. Electronica/techno had finally caught on in America--after years of being huge in Europe and other locales--and as usual for a short sighted and culturally narrow minded populace, some American critics and writers began to wonder if it would replace rock. Never mind that "with us or against us" and black-and-white have no place in music and never have; also never mind that jazz, blues, rock, hip hop, country, folk, techno, etc. can co-exist peacefully and cross pollinate and create great things. No, it seems that everyone was again making the mistake and saying rock was dead. Into this mire came Pavement, with their most thoroughly old fashioned album. In the aforementioned DVD, a European journalist asks Malkmus if, with Brighten The Corners, they are trying to save rock. He mutters some clever answer about how they feel alone on an island with a few other bands, but they'll save it in the end. I don't think he meant it, but it's a telling comment/joke nonetheless.
It's impossible for me to listen to this album without the above paragraph of context. Brighten The Corners is a sharp departure from the excess and variety of Wowee Zowee, and while I don't think it was an attempt to become a huge popular band that would save rock, it must at least have been an attempt to do something wholly different from their last. For that very reason, it's my least favorite Pavement album, and in many ways, I think it's their least interesting both to listen to and talk about. You may have noticed how much time I've given to everything about the album other than the music, and that's done half intentionally and half not so. I simply don't feel like I have much to say about the album; after a listen or two, its strengths and weaknesses feel self evident.
There are three things I want to point out, and they each involve two song pairs. The first is that 'Stereo' and 'Shady Lane' are among the best Pavement songs ever, and that they begin the album and were the sole singles from it is significant. Secondly, this album is the showcase for Spiral Stairs. Though he only contributes two songs, they are probably his best--with all due respect to 'Kennel District.' 'Date With Ikea' is a great, classicist rock/pop song with Kannberg's unpretentious vocals to make it deeply hummable, while 'Passat Dream' is one of the most unique pieces of the Pavement discography, with a danceable drum beat and a psychedelic backdrop of guitars, keyboards, and "ooh-woo-woo-ooh-ohh" vocals. Lastly, the album closes with the one-two punch of 'Starlings of the Slipstream' and 'Fin', two songs that both have that distinctive "this is the song that closes the album" feel to them. They always throw me off because I don't expect 'Fin' until it starts because 'Starlings' has such finality to it.
Actually, I lied, I have one last thing to say about the album. I'll try to make this quick because I don't have any evidence to back this up. Rather, this is just a matter of feeling: Brighten The Corners doesn't feel like a Pavement album to me. I say "feel" but I also mean "sound." I'm trying my best not to be vague, but there is simply something a bit off about the whole thing. Something in the production, the way the songs sound, how the instruments work with the lyrics, the general vibe of the whole thing...People like to give Terror Twilight guff for being a proto-Malkmus solo album, but if it is, at least it sounds like the other Pavement albums. Listen to Brighten The Corners before or after their other ones. All Pavement albums have a unique vibe and sound, but--again, apologies for being vague--there is something off about Brighten The Corners.
Though Brighten The Corners is my least favorite Pavement album, it also proves how good least-favorite-albums-by-one-of-my-favorite-bands can be. It's the sort of thing like Bossanova by the Pixies where I always forget how much I enjoy it until I make myself listen to it again. I look forward to the deluxe reissue of Brighten The Corners in order to help me get a better understanding and possible appreciation of this (kind of) undiscovered era of Pavement. Until then, know that Brighten The Corners is worth a listen for fans, but only after you've heard everything else. While it may seem I am being a bit harsh on something I admittedly like, I listen to it the least of any Pavement/Malkmus albums, and that should say more than all the words I just rambled out.
1994 and 1995 were hugely prolific years for Pavement. While the band were busy touring all over the place--even enjoying an ill fated stint on the 1995 Lollapalooza tour--they managed to release two great albums: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee. While the former has all the feel of a band becoming a band, with songs polished and eager to see action in the wild, the latter has all the feel of a band comfortable with each other, willing to try anything and stretch their horizons. The former was recorded mostly in a small studio in New York, while the latter was recorded mostly in the comfy confines of Memphis. In short, Wowee Zowee is a sloppy, schizophrenic "band album" that may strike most listeners as more fun to make than it is to listen to.
For my part, the album underscores, italicizes, and bolds the difference between "my favorite album from a band" and "the best album by a band." Is it a critic's duty to argue for his ragged beloved even if he knows his family, friends, and readers might not like it at all--"really, Dad, she's got a great personality!!"--or to acknowledge its flaws and, instead, work up the same level of enthusiasm for a more polished, digestible album that people are bound to like?? Should I consider my favorite album to be a band's best album, or should I always concede to popular opinion and taste?? Frankly, I love Woee Zowee and it's easily my favorite album by Pavement (in fact, most 'hardcore' fans, and members of the band, seem to feel the same) but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's never heard the band before. As I said in my reviews for Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, the latter is really the best place for newbies to start as well as being their most agreeable album. You could make a pretty solid case for either of Pavement's first two albums as being their definitive best, but you'll only ever see hardcore fans arguing that Wowee Zowee is their best.
I am one of them. Wowee Zowee is secretly one of the best albums of the 90s, but you would also have to like Pavement to feel that way. In my mind, I think of this album as being the most Pavement of all Pavement albums. It sounds like a band not trying to be anything except themselves. They let it all hang out here, too: the album is Pavement's longest and most diverse by a wide margin. In critic shorthand, we call this "a band's White Album." That Wowee Zowee begins with the slow, lurching 'We Dance' (a song that itself begins with the uncomfortable lyric "there is no/castration fear") speaks volumes for what the band were going for here. Moreover, the band chose 'Rattled By The Rush' and 'Father To a Sister of Thought' for the singles, two songs that don't exactly scream out for mid 90s alternative rock radio play. 'Father To a Sister of Thought', other than having of the best titles in the entire Pavement canon, just happens to be a mid-tempo countrified rocker that recalls 'Range Life' from Crooked Rain. So, yeah, it'd be hard to picture that playing after 'Zero' by the Smashing Pumpkins.
Other highlights abound. 'Grounded' is still one of my favorite songs from this or any album, with repetitive, swirling guitars and crunchy breaks. 'Grave Architecture' has one of those propulsive guitar/bass/drum grooves you can imagine yourself driving to or drinking to in a basement party. 'Flux = Rad' is a caustic punker that sees the band tapping back into their hardcore influences, Malkmus screaming "I don't wanna let you!!" before the song collapses into the two-part, epic sounding 'Fight This Generation', one of the band's masterpieces. Finally, there's 'Kennel District', Spiral Stairs' most visible and worthwhile contribution to an album up to this point, driven by a huge, fuzzy bassline and a distorted, upper register guitar.
Like their first two albums, Wowee Zowee was reissued in a deluxe fashion, titled Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition. You might think that, with such a long album, there wouldn't be much left to hear. Surprisingly, then, this disc-and-a-half of extras is every bit the equal of the Crooked Rain bonuses, if not the Slanted & Enchanted high water mark. Along with outtakes and b-sides from the 'Rattled By The Rush' and 'Father To A Sister of Thought' singles, disc one includes the Pacific Trim EP, which is a curious footnote both in the Pavement and Silver Jews histories. Pavement members Malkmus, Steve West, and Bob Nastanovich were supposed to record some Silver Jews material with David Berman at a studio, but Berman backed out at the last minute. Rather than waste the money, the three soldiered on, banging out these four songs in a few days. But I digress. None of this extra material is going to change your life, but for fans of this era of Pavement, they're like manna from heaven. 'Gangsters & Pranksters' is just one of those fun non-album tracks that fans of bands eat up and cherish and misguidedly put up mixtapes for friends who don't get it.
Disc two is far more scattershot. But, hey, that's what we love about Wowee Zowee, right?? 'Sensitive Euro Man' is a slight, formerly-soundtrack-only Malkmus number, better ed significantly by Spiral Stairs' 'Painted Soliders', another formerly-soundtrack-only affair that is genuinely catchy and rocking. It also has one of Pavement's best/worst videos ever, but that's a tale for another time. Elsewhere we get a few stray outtakes and compilation appearances that don't amount to much--'Soul Food' especially--while the live material is completely great. 'Fight This Generation' comes in a long, screechy-flute-enhanced version, giving people a glimpse into the way the band would sloppily stretch and break the songs live, all while Malkmus ad-libs new lyrics or just stream-of-consciousness variations of what was on the album. The band's penchant for throwing random tangents is shown in the 'Golden Boys/Candylad' pairing and later with the jam they do before busting into 'Box Elder', one of those weird moments where you're not sure if they're really trying or not.
When all is said and done, Wowee Zowee still remains my favorite Pavement album and one of my favorite albums, period. With the Sordid Sentinels reissue, I have even more reason to love it, and this era of Pavement in general. Yet I would be a liar if I said that everyone is going to love this album. Most people will probably listen to it once or twice, wish the band had removed 4 or 5 songs and shuffled the tracklisting around, and then go back to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. But for those who persevere and find sprawling, messy albums that display a band's full talent and personality appealing, there is nothing quite like Wowee Zowee to get you through the day.
I don't listen to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain anymore. Oh, sure, I do bust it out from time to time and play it, but I'm rarely actively listening to it. It goes in one ear and comes out the other and I can subconsciously feel the changes and the different songs, but the album has become so ingrained in my psyche that I take it for granted.
If you were going to play a Pavement album to try to get someone into the band, Crooked Rain would be it. Sure, Brighten The Corners is a lot more mellow and easy going, but it's also not as good as Crooked Rain. Rather, this album is the sound of Pavement forming into a true band that is both inventive and tips its hat to forefathers at the same time. Along with concurrent releases by, say, Sebadoh, the album also helped cement the mid 90s indie rock sound of clean guitars juxtaposed with distorted ones, and a wide ranging sound that draws inspiration from 70s punk rock, 80s hardcore, 80s indie rock, and classic rock.
'Silence Kid', often erroneously titled 'Silence Kit', opens the album with the band tuning up before the memorable rush of cowbell-driven-guitars kicks in. This really is one of those songs that you never get sick of and the difference between it and even the band's last release, the Watery, Domestic EP is huge. Much happened in Pavement land between these times, though: original drummer and producer Gary Young quit the band (or was fired, depending on who you ask) and was replaced by both friend-of-the-band Steve West and ancillary backup musician/road manager Bob Nastonovich, the latter of whom often had to keep time on a mini drum kit during concerts when Young became too drunk or antic happy to function. Steve West has a much more classically oriented full rock sound, fitting these songs like a glove; at the same time, the songs themselves just sound bigger and more cooked up, rather than the brilliant scribbles of Slanted & Enchanted. Scott Kannberg aka Spiral Stairs also makes more of a noticeable contribution, particularly with his first lead vocal appearance on 'Hit The Plane Down', which is one of those love-it-or-hate-it songs. Personally I don't think it fits the album at all, but I'm too used to it being there to really want to get rid of it.
While I should say up front that Crooked Rain is not my favorite Pavement album, it absolutely has some fantastic songs. 'Stop Breathin'' is the first instance on record of Malkmus's guitar ambitions which would later see fruition on his solo albums, a twirling, melancholic, and downright pretty solo showcase that achieves liftoff in its second half. 'Cut Your Hair' and 'Gold Soundz' being the most well known of the album's songs, you might think they have nothing to offer other than a hook to get mainstream America to buy Crooked Rain. Not so. If you haven't heard these songs in awhile, or just remember them as boring and accessible, give them another spin: the irresistable "ooh ooh ohh ohh ohh" chorus of 'Cut Your Hair' just gets better with age, while the rich melodies and skewed lyrics of 'Gold Soundz' make for great hanging-with-friends-in-the-Spring-or-Summer music. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention 'Heaven Is A Truck', which is the album's hidden gem. It also happens to be one of Malkmus's tenderest and most poetic songs, and apparently something of a favorite of his--seeing him perform it, solo and acoustic, at the Pitchfork festival last year was like watching an author do a reading of what they consider one of their best works.
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was released in a deluxe edition reissue a few years ago. Much like the Slanted & Enchanted reissue, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins adds a disc and a half of bonus material, most of which is unavailable elsewhere. While it's nowhere near as good as the first reissue's bonus material, it's still the version to buy. The first disc's extra stuff mostly amounts to B-sides, all of which you'll listen to a few times and forget about. 'Coolin' By Sound' would have made a better choice for the album as a Spiral Stairs song instead of 'Hit The Plane Down', though, and 'Strings of Nashville' is a gorgeous and quiet ballad that may take you off guard. Disc two is where the money is at: a handful of songs from the scrapped sessions the band did with Gary Young, a host of outtakes and song sketches, and a Peel session to cap it all off. Tracks 2 through 8 were from the aforementioned Young session and reveal what the album might have turned out like with Young still in the band and producing. They simply don't sound right, and while that may be a "I'm too used to the album as it would turn out" thing, 'Range Life', 'Stop Breathin'', and 'Ell Ess Two' (later renamed 'Elevate Me Later') sound rushed and lightweight in any context.
What will most please fans is the remainder of the disc, which has some great unreleased material and plays like a mini-album. Along with a piano heavy alternate mix of 'Heaven Is A Truck' and early versions of songs that would turn up on Wowee Zowee, we get a glimpse into the Pavement songwriting playbook with the sketches like 'Rug Rat' and 'Dark Ages.' I find these fascinating because I love Malkmus's tossed off songs and lyrical ad-libs, but everyone else's mileage will vary. After the palette cleansing, sad, and appropriately titled 'Instrumental', the Peel session closes the disc with 'Brink of the Clouds' and 'Tartar Martyr', equally good Malkmus and Spiral Stairs unreleased songs; an early version of 'Pueblo'; and 'The Sutcliffe Catering Song' which will show up on the Wowee Zowee deluxe edition titled 'Easily Fooled.' Anyway, it's a nice cap to the reissue, and every bit as "wow, I've never heard these before and they're awesome!!" as the Peel sessions from Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe.
But I digress. It's easy for me to recommend this album to anyone because it's the one that even people who don't really like Pavement can enjoy. If you're looking to expand your horizons, or go back in time to when indie rock was the alternative to alternative rock, then Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the album for you.
If you'll excuse me for opening a post in such a lavish, proclamatory way, I just want to get this off my chest: Slanted & Enchanted is one of the best albums ever released and it's next to impossible to imagine the development of indie rock from the 90s onward without it. Whew. I feel better.
Though still a band not nearly as popular and well known as we music critics make them out to be, nevertheless, during the 90s Pavement were the carriers of the great white indie rock hope. This mantle having been placed on them with the release, in 1992, of Slanted & Enchanted, an album that both significantly improved upon their first three EPs and 'Summer Babe' single as collected on Westing (By Musket and Sextant) AND blew the doors out on the band's songwriting, pushing songs in new and strange directions. Witness 'Conduit For Sale!' in all its dust raising glory, alternating between cries of "I'm trying!! I'm trying!!" and Stephen Malkmus's stream of consciousness, almost 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'-esque quick talking absurdisms. Witness 'Here', their first "ballad", which moves in a circular fashion while maintaining the same sublime drum and guitar line during its entire duration. Witness 'Fame Throwa', perhaps the album's most unique creation, a cinematic spy tale of two disparate pieces that sling back and forth neatly. At least I think that's what is going on...
One could talk about each of the album's original 14 songs, but other than 'Our Singer', which is one of my favorite and most unsung tracks from the album, you either know these songs already or you have no clue. If you don't have a clue, you really should. Early 90s indie rock doesn't come much better than Slanted & Enchanted, and while you may at first be turned off by the bits of noise or the screaming/yelping on some songs, give the album enough time to win you over and you'll have a true favorite for years to come.
In 2002, to mark the 10th anniversary of the album, Matador released the Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe reissue. Spread across 2 CDs are the original album, assorted B-sides, two Peel sessions, the Watery, Domestic EP released shortly after the album, B-sides from that EP, and a full concert from late '92. This really is the version of the album to buy even if it will you cost a bit more money. The Peel sessions alone are a wealth of mostly unreleased Pavement gems, from the plaintive, cleaned up version of 'Secret Knowledge of Backroads' that would be seen on the Silver Jews' The Arizona Record to the addictive "see myself come running back" call and response vocals on 'Circa 1762' to the suffocating atmosphere and strangled shrieks of 'The List of Dorms', they're all unique additions to the Slanted era.
Of course the big draws are the full concert and the Watery, Domestic EP. The concert is more or less what you'd expect. It's mostly "more frantic and rocking" versions of Slanted era songs. However, it should be noted that the concert also contains songs from the Westing collection in significantly better form, including 'Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent.' As for Watery, Domestic, well, it's rightfully considered the best EP Pavement ever put out--though I do have a soft spot for Pacific Trim. 'Texas Never Whispers' begins with a feedback shrill organ before descending into the cool opening line "here we go/she's on a hidden tableaux", which is probably the only time I've heard "tableaux" used in a song. 'Frontwards' is one of the band's signature non-album tracks, an almost Weezer-esque mid-tempo mellow rocker with the memorably uncharacteristic line "well I've got style/miles and miles/so much style that it's wasted." 'Lions (Linden)' is a slight-but-good ditty while 'Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)' helps point the way to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain with its (kind of) fuller band sound and "da da da da" vocals/Malkmus ad-libbing something during the ending. Oddly enough, 'So Stark (You're A Skyscraper)' and 'Greenlander' didn't make the cut for the EP though I think most people agree they're as good if not better that the last two songs on the EP. 'Greenlander' is just one of those songs you can end a mixtape's side on and feel good about every single time.
Slanted & Enchanted occupies this weird space for me, because it's neither my favorite Pavement album (that would be Wowee Zowee) nor the one I would consider the best place to start for newbies (that would be Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain). However, I would stick my neck out and call it Pavement's most important album, because of everything it did for the band (proved their potential, justified the initial attention and praise) and the indie rock world (a landmark release, both for the "scene" itself and now-powerhouse, then-brand-new label Matador). Setting all of this aside, as one should ultimately, Slanted & Enchanted is an album that you have to thumb through a thesaurus to come up with new and interesting superlatives for because it's all been said. You simply must have it, and the Luxe & Reduxe version of the album is worth every penny.
The final albums by bands often have a fascinating quality about them that has nothing to do with the music contained inside. It's tempting to throw the lyrics across a table like owl bones and try to read coded messages about a break-up or inter-band acrimony. At the same time, it's also tempting to compare the final album to the subsequent solo material and/or side projects of the former band members. Would the band have naturally headed in those directions, or did it take the end of the band and a "clean slate" mindset to create those changes??
