![]() ![]() Were you worried he’d be a little heavy-handed in the studio? Either someone told him to contact me or he did it of his own devices, so I thought, ‘Yeah, sure, why don’t we do it with him?’ He’s got all the cool stuff, he’s not gonna, like, try to over-charge us or do any of the things that you have to consider when you’re dealing with a producer, and I know him: we did Lollapalooza together in like ’96 or something, with Hole and Sonic Youth – he had the Loser song, but it was before he did the album, Odelay, that hadn’t come out, so he was not a big star yet but he was a novelty star – so I was like ‘I like that dude’ on that tour, we got along, and then I hadn’t seen him for several years- and in that time he put out a lot of records. Probably about six months before we recorded he rang me up to catch up, but what he was really doing was saying he was a producer now, he wanted to produce some bands, because he had a recording setup in his house, and he was in a time when he wasn’t working on new material, or he was having trouble with that, or something. When did the idea come up to work with Beck? Had your paths crossed throughout your career? He chats to Nathan Jolly about his enviable back catalogue. As the frontman of the unassailable Pavement he redefined indie pop: his lyrics tumble out in torrents of non sequiturs and witty wordplay, while his unconventional vocal melodies seem to emerge fully-formed, lazily weaving around angular guitar parts, atonal blasts of noises and interesting rhythm sections. No, it's not quite the same as another Pavement album, but its literate, funny eclecticism is almost as irresistible.St ephen Malkmus is one of the most storied songwriters in recent musical history. ![]() By keeping things light, Stephen Malkmus - the album and, very likely, the person - defies heavy analysis from critics and fans. #Torrent stephen malkmus free#Though placing most of the zippy, instantly catchy songs near the top of the album works against it somewhat, as a whole it's refreshingly free of the typical solo debut's gravity and earnestness. Actually, the song that sounds the most like late-'90s Pavement, the chugging album opener "Black Book," is the most out of place with the rest of Stephen Malkmus' fun, lighthearted tone. ![]() Likewise, the Stonesy tale about being a pirate, "The Hook" - which sounds like the ship's crew is listening to a bar band while taking a rum break - just doesn't seem like the type of song Pavement would have recorded at the end of their career. The groovy keyboards laced through songs like "Pink India" and "Jennifer and the Ess-Dog," a funny, poignant ballad about a neo-hippie couple going their separate ways, give the album different textures than those Pavement explored. And while the surprisingly straightforward rocker "Discretion Grove" and "Trojan Curfew" - a pretty, countrified ballad about the Trojan War that rhymes "doric arch" with "pyhrric march" - could have fit on Pavement's later works, Stephen Malkmus does feature some twists and turns that differentiate the album from Malkmus' old band. The beautiful, chiming "Church on White" is one of Malkmus' best sweeping, emotional guitar epics since "Grounded" or "Fin" "Vague Space" and "Deado"'s sweet, quirky romanticism balances earnestness and irony in the way Pavement tried to on Terror Twilight, but avoids that album's oddly distant sound. Stephen Malkmus begins with a rush of these vibrantly playful songs, including "Phantasies," a fey mix of falsetto vocals, pennywhistles, handclaps, marimbas, and other bizarre musical non sequiturs, and "JoJo's Jacket," a whimsical, stream-of-consciousness ode to Yul Brenner: "Perhaps you saw me in Westworld/I acted like a robotic cowboy/It was my best role/I cannot deny/I felt right home deep inside/that electronic carcass." Like most of the album, these songs take a few aspects of what made Pavement great and magnify them. Which is good, because instantly catchy, zany songs like "Troubbble" might not have made it to the album. This may be because he didn't have to deal with the confines and expectations of a new Pavement album Malkmus didn't originally plan to release the album through Matador, which possibly removed some of the pressure to make a "statement" with this collection. In fact, it sounds like the most fun he's had in a studio since Wowee Zowee. Yet Malkmus' actual solo debut, aptly named Stephen Malkmus, reclaims some of the energetic creativity of Pavement's best albums. The album's polished production and earnest, ambitious songwriting - not to mention lack of Scott Kannberg songs - sounded miles away from the playful, slightly chaotic rock that made albums like Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain so exciting. Much like the Pixies' Trompe Le Monde, Pavement's swan song, Terror Twilight, sounded a lot like a disguised solo album from the group's chief singer/songwriter, Stephen Malkmus. ![]()
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