Hard Quartet – Hard Quartet – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Pavement – Vicar St – Live Review – 10/11/22

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Stephen Malkmus – Groove Denied – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/03/19/stephen-malkmus-groove-denied-album-review/

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/

A Look Ahead – Music in 2018

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/01/01/a-look-ahead-music-in-2018/

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 - Face The Truth

The third solo album from Stephen Malkmus came out in 2005, opening with the jarring squeaks of Pencil Rot.  Buried underneath annoying studio trickery is a half decent tune.  Not far into the album we get the vaguely irritating I've Hardly Been, not the ideal start!  Thankfully It Kills, is the kind of guitar heavy, relaxed tune Malkmus has made his own post-Pavement, with a little snatch of banjo and a hint at, of all things, Rod Stewart's Do You Think I'm Sexy thrown in.  The easy, lazy charm of Freeze The Saints works well, enhanced by some really excellent guitar work.

But the eight minute No More Shoes is the centrepiece.  Sounding pure seventies, the song is built on a rolling guitar riff and a 'do-do-ing' refrain which acts as a jumping off point for Malkmus to indulge in some awesome guitar work.  It's a powerful track and the best thing on the album.  After this, Mama is a bit of a throwaway, sounding like a cross between The Beatles' Ballad of John and Yoko and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Rollin' On A River.  And what follows isn't too inspiring.  Kindling for the Master aims for the same poise as Bowie's Golden Years, while other tracks such as Post Paint Boy and Baby C'mon would be fairly run of the mill only for Malkmus' guitar work.  So overall, not a standout effort within Stephen Malkmus' catalogue but rescued by some decent tunes and some above average guitar work.

Pavement - Brighten the Corners

After the all over the shop Wowee Zowee, 1997's Brighten the Corners was a kind of 'back to basics' for Pavement, and it's definitely an easier listen than its predecessor.  It opens with the smart ass rock of Stereo, which has a great moment when Stephen Malkmus sings "what about the voice of Geddy Lee, how did it get so high, I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy" and he's answered by "I know him, and he does", and Malkmus answers "then youu're my fact-checking cuz".  It's SO knowingly cheesy, which makes it actually brilliant.  More melodic is Shady Lane, which has warm guitar lines and a singalong chorus.  Midtempo grooves are the order of the day here with songs like Transport Is Arranged, We Are Underused and Type Slowly, which all have a fairly amiable laidback vibe and nonsensical lyrics, the latter featuring the memorable line "one of us is a cigar stand", before easing into Tom Verlaine style guitar heaven.  Date with IKEA is one of their more generic, yet accessible rockers, and would fit in fine on any indie music station (if we still had one), while Malkmus unleashes some fine guitar work in Old to Begin.

Embassy Row starts out a little like late period VU but then scorches off into a streaky rocker.  Blue Hawaiian provides a change (down) of pace, with classic Malkmus muttered lyrics ("your cheeks have lost their lustre").  The understated Starlings of the Slipstream is a late highlight, again it's highly melodic though not a predictable, hackneyed, borrowed tune, rather something that sounds original and strangely addicitve.  The album finishes with Fin, something which will allow you drift off on a sea of guitars.  Which is a good thing.

If you're looking for an example of what 90s indie is, this isn't too far away.  A kind of 'grower', if ever there was a "three and a half star" album, this is it. 

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.

Album Review: Stephen Malkmus

Stephen Malkmus' first solo album post-Pavement came out in 2001.  Unlike the final Pavement album which had quite a uniform sound, this album is kind of all over the shop.  It opens with the Stones-y rocker Black Book, which sounds a little odd coming from the mouth of Malkmus, as he sw(J)aggers "the black book you took was permanent-ally diversified", but that's every bit as clumsy as that sounds.  He tries similar posturing later with The Hook, but the results are much the same.  Too many songs like Phantasies, Jo Jo's Jacket and Troubbble breeze by in a kind of throwaway manner.  Much better is Church On White which features some glorious guitar work in the spirit of Tom Verlaine.  It's an absolutely splendid guitar workout, but it's not really helped by being surrounded by some of Malkmus' more mediocre material.

Discretion Grove and the lazy drawl of Trojan Curfew evoke his former band in great fashion, featuring yet more soaring guitar and catchy melodies.  The sunny, acoustic picking of Pink India sounds graceful and carefree, before building to a swaggering rocker, but this one suits Malkmus way better than Black Book or The Hook.  Jenny and the Ess Dog is quite tuneful if you can ignore its obvious similarity to Elliott Smith's Say Yes, while closing track Deado has a somewhat regretful tone, finishing the album on a downbeat note.

So if you're prepared to work with this album, albeit it's a seriously backloaded one, it does actually pay off.

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

In 1994 the music scene was dominated by the dying embers of grunge and the embryonic stirrings of Britpop. Into this climate Pavement released their second album, the one that really established them.  This is probably I'd use to introduce a Malkmus virgin to Pavement. It starts out with rousing anthem Silence Kit, with a melody which evokes about ten other songs yet, like Mercury, you can't quite grasp it.  The guitars on the album are a lot less rough than on Slanted and Enchanted.  The swirling, soaring guitars of Elevate Me Later and Gold Soundz are a joy to behold.  The latter of these is a sort of downbeat anthem that's emblematic of the album.

Stop Breathin' is slower and moodier as Stephen Malkmus implores the unnamed to "stop Breathin', write it on a postcard" over grindingly melodic guitars.  There are two hugely catchy songs on this album: the first is Cut Your Hair, introduced by insatiably addictive 'ooh-oohing'.  It's a sort of jokey call to arms: "did you see your drummer's hair... NO BIG HAIR!". It's a distillation of how judgemental you can be in your early twenties, where people get dismissed forever by virtue of a bad haircut or bad shoes.  The second of these is the countrified-as-f**k Range Life, fobbing off early 90s alt-rock Gods Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots ("elegant bachelors") over a lazily drawled strum

It's not all melodic wonder - 5-4 = Unity is plinky-plonk jazz tedium, while Hit the Plane Down is as annoying as any of the annoying tracks on Slanted.  But elsewhere it's a low key wonder.

Pavement - Watery, Domestic

Pavement released this stopgap EP in 1992 following their debut album, Slanted and Enchanted.  Of course they have to start Texas Never Whispers with 20 seconds of jarring synth noise before the grinding guitars kick in.  Stephen Malkmus sounds impossibly cool as he drawls the lyrics "she's so lackadaisical, should have been a West coast bride".

The trident, confident guitar licks on Frontwards follow this up, it's a confident, gritty rocker in the mould of Summer Babe.  After the brief, scratchy Lions (Linden) the EP finishes with the melodic Shoot The Singer which plays out like a less scratchy Perfume-V, with a nice guitarry coda that you won't want to finish.  A good EP but mainly a warm-up for Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

Pavement - Terror Twilight

Pavement's fifth album, released in 1999, gets little attention in comparison to their earlier stuff, but it's quite a likeable album.  After a red herring in the form of a load of drums colliding, Spit On A Stranger is a gorgeously laidback slab of guitar rock.  Duelling banjos introduce Folk Jam which maintains a kind of mellow, driving mood.  You Are A Light, is equally tuneful and laidback with elements of Beck creeping in here and there, before a blistering yet brief guitar solo.  So all very chilled but... it's Pavement, so where's the fuzzy mess?

Cream of Gold turns the intensity up a bit, with harder riffs, but this is then followed by the most gloriously summery Major Leagues, which is almost made for radio.  The playing on this track is subtle, no instrument dominating too much, and Stephen Malkmus' vocal is understated.  Still trying to be Malkmus, but in an understated way.

No Pavement album would be complete without its jarring moments, and Platform Blues provides those with clattering rhythms but even this seems to absorb the general tunefulness of this album as the riffs resolve themselves into one of their more inventive songs, with multiple parts, some of them easy on the ear, some of them not so much.  Just when you think you might have to get up off your backside and do something here, Ann Don't Cry returns the album to horizontal status, it's another really pleasant tune, which should be a criticism but isn't at all on this album.

Towards the end the album gets looser with the all-over-the-shop faux-jazz Speak, See, Remember, a better song than that description indicates.  The Hexx is downright sultry, a simple, descending melody but with some fantastic guitar work, real guitar hero stuff.  A pity then that the album ends with the somewhjat out of place, jaunty And Carrot Rope.  But, that aside, a damn good album.  In an age of imitators, these guys do Pavement better than anybody.