Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Sparkle Hard – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/05/20/stephen-malkmus-and-the-jicks-sparkle-hard-album-review/

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic

Stephen Malkmus released his fourth album with the Jicks in 2011.  Produced by Beck, it's a fairly sprawling album encompassing 15 tracks of varying styles, opening with strummy pop song Tigers which is a fairly catchy tune bursting with ideas in two and a half minutes.  No One Is is more relaxed, featuring quiet guitar picking, occasional piano and brass.  It's one of the more enjoyable tracks here, with each instrument given room to breathe and occupy the space.

Those who miss Pavement are catered for here also with the trashy Senator, bashed guitars and dodgy lyrics ("what the senator wants is a blow job").  But mostly we get muso-Malkmus showing off his (considerable) talent on guitar on intricate, jammy songs like Brain Gallop, Spazz and the rocky Share The Red.  That's not to say they are without merit, the easy, melodic Asking Price and the pedal steel drenched Long Hard Book.  We also get poppier moments like the strummy Stick Figures In Love, the almost Ziggy-esque Tune Grief and the sixties-evoking Forever 28.  But at 15 tracks, admittedly for the most part, brief ones, there's a LOT to take in, making the album quite a dense listen.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash

2008's Real Emotional Trash is the album where Stephen Malkmus finally casts off the shackles of his former band Pavement.  It opens in somewhat lumbering fashion, with the heavy riffs of Dragonfly Pie and the Doors-isms of Hopscotch Willie.  Very much a guitarist album, the ten minute title track is, despite its long-windedness, something of a highlight, taking its time to unfurl some seriously impressive guitar work by Malkmus.  Muscular, riffy rock is the order of the day on tracks like Out of Reaches and Baltimore, which are a long way from the indie sound Pavement were known for.  In other words if intricate fretwork is not your bag, don't come anywhere near this album.  Many of these songs are pretty unfocused.  The terribly titled Elmo Delmo is certainly that, but it works well, albeit in a late 60s/early 70s rock way, ie 'pass the joint' and all that.  Following this, We Can't Help You is practically The Band.  It comes as something of a relief after so much bluster when final track Wicked Wanda starts in relatively quiet fashion before the mighty riffs kick in, in fairness, to pretty excellent effect.  The real question is: is this Malkmus pretending to do a 70s rock album, or is this the real deal?

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Pig Lib

2003's Pig Lib is Stephen Malkmus' second album in his own name, this time his band the Jicks get equal billing.  It opens with Water and a Seat, where Malkmus' guitars initially sound quite unhinged and all over the place with a vocal to match, but somehow it resolves into a lurching, swaggering guitar rocker, allowing Malkmus to show off his (considerable) skills.  It's an awkward bugger of a track that aims high but ultimately falls just a little short.  Ramp of Death and (Do Not Feed The) Oyster are more low key, but are fine tunes, the latter featuring a searing guitar solo.  Vanessa From Queens is a slight, mellow tune but Sheets is a far more involving track, drenched in guitars and melody.  Later, two highlights include Animal Midnight, a track that ebbs and flows before unleashing a soaring guitar solo, and gently swaggering rocker Witch Mountain Bridge.  Elsewhere in the latter half of the album the quality does tail off with the throwaway Dark Wave, The Craw and the way-too-long-at-nine-minutes 1% of One, a repetitive babble of a track.  The album would work well for fans of Pavement, and it's an engaging album if you like your guitars.