Customer Reviews

Real Emotional Trash

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Long story short--another excellent effort from Malkmus, in what's becoming a very rewarding solo career, more focused on pure songwriting and musicianship than his first gig (it's hard to believe that the # of Jicks discs is creeping up on the # of Pavement discs. Of course, that discounts all the b-sides, singles, outtakes, Peel sessions, etc. But I digress...)

Anyway, yes, this album is a little bit of a grower. Yes, some of the songs are quite long. But as one of the earlier comments suggested, the Jicks make the run-time worth it, and once you become familiar with some of the songs' twists and turns, tracks like 'Hopscotch Willie,' 'Baltimore,' and the glorious title track become the highlights of the album. Don't confuse the term 'jam' with endless, pointless solos. In each of the more discursive tracks, malkmus uses his instrumental prowess (and the newly amped-up Jicks, thanks to Janet Weiss) as a bridge to take the song from point A to B, rather than as mere navel gazing. So settle in and get familiar with these songs, the trip is worth it.

The shorter songs are just as nice, relying more on killer melodies, touching lyrics, and inventive arrangements to establish a variety of moods, from the somber "Cold Son" and "Out of Reaches" to the peppy and smitten "Gardenia."

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't expound just a little bit on the Jicks' new secret weapon, the aforementioned Ms. Weiss. While I sometimes wish her drums were brought up in the mix, and her skin-pounding isn't quite as musical as in some of her best efforts (I'm particularly fond of her work on 'the Hot Rock'), this isn't that kind of record, and her fluent fills and enthused bashing add a fluidity to the rhythm section that Malkmus hasn't had since before Gary Young left the reservation. Throw in her charming backing vocals, and the MVJ (most valuable Jick) award is hers. Somehow, the sound of malkmus dueting with a softer, more sympathetic voice adds a level of resonance to the lyrics, as on the closer "Wicked Wanda" (where, coincidentally, malkmus swipes the ping-ponging vocal from Liz Phair's "Flower" ["Every time I see your face, I think of things, unpure, unchaste..."]).

Like I said above, long story short--this is a damn fine album, and a very rewarding listen, if you're ready to put just a little time into it.

To explain just how deeply I love this album, let me tell you first off that I'm on my 2nd copy already! That's right, I wore out CD #1. This album rocks; shreds; cooks with gas. Glorious. Hallalujah brothers that there's a songwriter like Malkmus alive today! It's classic rock with indie lyrics. It sweeps, it swoops, it dives, it sings, it sways. Everybody should have a copy. The new Sgt. Pepper.

If we classify music as art, we should recognize this definition of art: having the capacity to stimulate the senses in unexpected ways, even after after repeated exposure. No collection of an artist's output can be deemed "perfect" due to the subjective nature of art itself. The real test of a piece of art, then, is not how we label it, but how often we are drawn back to it.

That said, Malkmus and his collaborators have produced a recording that sounds great right out of the gate and bears repeated listening. I kept listening to this disk for a solid 8-10 days--to the exclusion of everything else in my library--and have continued to revisit it on a weekly basis. The guitar parts, though vaguely reminiscent of prior artists and styles, are continually intriguing--quite a good thing given that this is a guitar-driven recording. I can't slight the Jicks, whose empathetic support lend this project a dynamism in which Malkmus quirky lyrics and lithe guitar musings thrive. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the entire endeavor rocks!

Stephen Malkmus's trajectory as a solo artist is beginning to remind me of former Replacements leader Paul Westerberg. The casual, offhanded brilliance that was so commonplace for the solo artist's "old" band is still there, you just have to dig a little more for it and put up with more attempts that don't work. Suffice it to say, this album is not the second coming of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. But for what it is, it's enjoyable if you have the patience for extended improvisational passages and an overall retro-70s sound.

This album reminds me quite a lot of some of Sonic Youth's more accessible material (Murray Street), as well as Wilco's latter day work (A Ghost Is Born) and of course Built To Spill (Perfect from Now On). What all of this music has in common is a penchant for extended instrumental interplay. None of this could accurately be lumped under the "jam bands" category (those bands owe more of a debt to jazz and the Grateful Dead, while SM and the other bands mentioned above seem to come more from the Television approach, reference: Marquee Moon), however all of it teeters on the edge of self-indulgent noodling if it's not done right. Fortunately, all of these musicians (SM included) handle things tastefully and integrate an accessible sound with their tendencies to head into meandering territory. In other words, they make the wandering sound purposeful and idea-rich rather than simply formless.

I'll be honest, the first two songs on this album are fun but don't do all that much for me yet. Maybe I just need to warm up to them a bit more. However the third song, "Cold Son," is absolutely classic Malkmus. It's catchy, melancholy and funny. It's my favorite song on this album, and no surprise that it's one of the shorter ones. The rest of the album gets better from there, and I will note in particular that the longer passages work on the title cut very well. I have a sense that it will be a grower and so far it's proving to be a very rewarding listen with lots to explore and come back to repeatedly.

Like other listeners, my frustration is mainly with the lack of editing, but perhaps that's a good thing. Malkmus is definitely secure with cult status, and this album is unlikley to bring many new converts to his camp. Fans will probably cut Malkmus some slack on the self-indulgence and rightfully find plenty that's rewarding. Newcomers will probably just not get it. If that means it'll be easier to get tickets when he comes to town, who am I to argue?

A pure genius rock-out. Shut up, buy it, listen to it in awe, praise it to your friends, bask in how cool you feel about yourself because you love it and never again provide another over-analyzed pretentious driveled opinion about his graceful motives and unsurpassed talents again.

This has turned out to be one of my favorite albums of the year. It may be Malkmus's best post-Pavement work. The tracks are catchy, the lyrics are stupid, and the guitar freakouts are entertaining.

Really like this CD a lot. Very different. Meanders around in styles, some great guitar licks and entertaining songs. Give it a listen, might take a few times through to really appreciate it but it is a very solid disc.

Ever since Pavement broke up, Stephen Malkmus has just gotten odder and odder. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

And he really doesn't disappoint in his fourth full-length solo album with the Jicks, "Real Emotional Trash," which strikes a brilliant balance between the sounds of "Pig Lib" and "Face the Truth." Malkmus preserves his insane lyrics and fuzz-freakery, but wraps them around some gloriously eccentric psychedelic rock songs.

It opens with a dark, sludgy bassline, festooned in buzzing riffs, with Malkmus droning wearily, "Of all my stoned digressions/Some have mutated into the truth." But the slow grimy grinds suddenly speeds up... and melts away into a sublime little pop melody ("Taken with pride like a dragonfly/dragonfly wants a piece of pie!") that alternates between stoner riffs and delightfully sunny harmonium melodies.

The title track is a ten-minute bounce of peppy, sputtering guitar rock split by a drowsy, ringing expanse, and fading out to a meandering little guitar melody, as if he were falling asleep at the strings.

But he hasn't, because it's just the start of a whole new string of songs -- quirky buzzy pop, loopy little experimental rockers, and a lot of meandering rock'n'roll with fuzzy hard edges and drips of keyboard. It finishes up with two really delicious little songs -- the sunny shimmers of "We Can't Help You" and the intimate psychfolky sound of "Wicked Wanda."

When listening to a Stephen Malkmus album, I'm never entirely sure what he's crafting. "Real Emotional Trash" happily wobbles between pop epic, experimental concept album, and quirky indie fuzz-rocker without committing to any one sound, and Malkmus does a pretty solid job interweaving them together. This is very much his style, but striking a balance between quirk and listener-friendliness.

And he mostly sticks to what has worked for him in the past -- pleasantly meandering rockers and peppy pop, given some odd edges. His ringing guitar riffs are simply astounding, twisting and stretching beyond what you'd think the instrument could manage -- along with the Jicks' flexible instrumentation. The instrumentation is a fluid, glorious stream of piano, drumming, fuzz bass and rippling hollow keyboard, as in the beautiful opening of "We Can't Help You."

Don't worry, he doesn't just retread. There are some psychedelic twists here and there, while "Elmo Delmo" and the title track both have stretches of spacey, buzzy prog-rock in the middle. While not as accessible as the straightforward rockers, they're still pretty brilliant.

And Malkmus genuinely sounds like he's having fun, as his mellow voice darts in and out of the music. He can be murmuring one minute, and then yowl out at the listener the next. And as expected, his lyrics are really weird and nonsensical, but with some very clever moments here and there ("Who is in the sand?/the world is my oyster/I feel like a nympho stuck in a cloister"). Chuckle.

The title of "Real Emotional Trash" might give you the wrong idea, because Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' latest is anything but trash. It's polished, weird, and very endearing.

Former singer of Pavement Stephen Malkmus still remains one of the most influential, cool indie alternative rock artists in the underground rock world. He had me a fan after the first listen of Pavement's full-length debut of "Slanted and Enchanted" way back in the '90's. Stephen Malkmus has not only released Pavement albums, but also multiple solo albums like this one and side projects. He is known for his off beat style and different way of doing things and this release is exactly what you would expect. It has songs with guitar jams that seem to make them different than if another artist were to try it.

He has a way with timing, knowing what fits where and when in each song. On this album he is joined by the former drummer of one of my faves Sleater-Kinney Janet Weiss. She is an excellent addition to the band with her dynamic drumming and lovely backing vocal harmonies. "Out of Reaches" definitely has the signature Pavement style sound while the song "Gardenia" is a more straightforward indie pop song. The title track is a long one and does take Malkmus's style into a new direction with it's rock/psychedelic venture. All in all Real Emotional Trash is an album I would recommend you to get.

Before the release of this, Stephen Malkmus' fourth album following the breakup of his name-making band, Pavement, finding a relation between the quality of the man's output to how much control he had over the writing, playing and recording of his songs was inevitable. Pavement, surely a spirited crew of chums to the end, could hardly keep up with Malkmus' talent following the beautiful mess that was Wowee Zowee. Likewise, his first and third solo albums - the ones he wrote, played and recorded almost entirely by himself - were better than his second, Pig Lib, which was great, but at times uneven. Real Emotional Trash, Malkmus and Company's first album since the addition of Sleater-Kinney and Quasi drummer Janet Weiss, is the most collaborative Malkmus-related album since he and Spiral Stairs were destroying guitars in Gary Young's home studio in 1991. Because of this, yes, it's different than any other Malkmus project, but don't worry, it's also very good and - along with Slanted and Enchanted and Stephen Malkmus - his most cohesive record, playing through with a very organic, live-in-studio feel, a rare attribute no other Malkmus album can wholly claim.

Does this added element of collaboration water down the Malkmus-isms that make his records so special? Maybe. Maybe a little bit here and there, but not necessarily in a way that taints the brilliance of his craft. After a few listens, the meaty-as-hell guitar riffs and slow-pounding classic rock rhythms that open the album come off as an anthem for a new kind of Jick. Malkmus rips all over opener "Dragonfly Pie," showing that he has no problem keeping up with Weiss' every pounding expectation, proving that the noodle-y winks spread throughout his past were no joke. The song, like any good Malkmus offering, inevitably turns silly, with our man splitting time between breaking out his familiar girly voice for obscure lyrics like "shake me off the knife because I want to go home" and tearing through heavy, dirty guitar solos. The stoner/pop duality of this song sets the stage for Real Emotional Trash, an album that sees Malkmus and his Jicks playing always organic rock n' roll that sounds exactly how an album from a crew of 90s rockers bent on both 70s music and the quirkier side of Brit-pop should.

The seven-minute "Hopscotch Willie" is a surprisingly fluent trip, harboring Malkmus' least obscure lyrics since his eponymous solo debut. Still a clinic in obscurity compared to the normal college radio tune, "Willie" manages to be lengthy without ever feeling loopy, mixing solos and movements in a pseudo-prog, kitchen-sink-Zeppelin sort of way we haven't yet heard from Malkmus. This is not surprising, really, considering the ever-growing amount of goofy guitar noodling on his records. Next up is "Cold Son," one of Trash's shortest offerings at just under four minutes. Here Malkmus again splices his stoner/pop loves into one, crafting a trippy-but-poppy song made to satisfy Wowee Zowee-era Pavement enthusiasts.

A diverse approach to the Jick brand of stoner-pop keeps Real Emotional Trash's songs from ever sounding too similar. Live-in-studio sound in tow, songs like "Baltimore" and, especially, "Real Emotional Trash" are at fist challenging, clocking in at around seven and 10 minutes each. "Baltimore," Trash's default lead single, will appeal to the "jam kids" Malkmus himself snarkily sang about in the mid-90s. Full of silver-tongued lyrical poetics and what appears again to be a prog-rock approach to long-form pop, the song feels more like a journey than a jam, trading off memorable one-liners, hooks and guitar solos to sweetly stitched-together results. The album's title track, likewise, attempts to be epic without ever falling into the loopy category. Malkmus knows what a jam is, surely, but doesn't play by the rules. Rather than wanking around indulgently on his guitar, "Real Emotional Trash" sees Malkmus working in chapters, building a cohesive song-for-the-ages that displays his self-taught guitar prowess better than anything else he's recorded in his nearly 20-year professional career.

But, like we were saying, this is an album built on diversity - one that contains a few pure pop ditties. "Gardenia," for one, is unapologetically bouncy and sugarcoated with "bop-bop-ba-da-da-da" backing vocals; it's the kind of wordy, joyous pop song that only Stephen Malkmus could dream up. Along with the aforementioned "Cold Son" and classic sounding "We Can't Help You" (think Wilco's recent "What Light"), "Gardenia" reminds listeners of the man's initial genius. He's a master of left-field pop and, believe it or not, he's somehow found a way to take said simple genre's backbone and make it breathe. He's writing songs that he and his band will surely be able to open up on stage when they feel like it - songs that, without being too "jammy" on record, are made to grow. Pop songs made perfect for changing each time they're played, kind of like The Grateful Dead's American Beauty, only completely different.

Collaborative, heavy-in-sound and full of weirdo slacker charm, Real Emotional Trash is another great chapter in the long book of SxMx. Be it a Pavement, Silver Jews or Jicks record, Leather McWhip refuses to do the same thing twice. Calling this one of the very best records of his career - if only for its ambition, unique yet subtle genre-melding and skillful playing - would not be inaccurate. Calling it the first great album of 2008 is a no-brainer. (Greg Locke)