Customer Reviews

Slanted & Enchanted

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

"Slanted and Enchanted" has never easily fit comfortably in its classic status, like a sweater a size too big. No matter how much music critics champion "Slanted and Enchanted" as one of the greatest albums of the 90s, even if Time magazine slapped Pavement on their cover and called "Slanted and Enchanted" the most important record of the 90s, it's never going to belong to the shining pantheon with its brighter, better-produced big brothers. My guess is that "Slanted and Enchanted" isn't going to appear in any local neighborhood jukeboxes anytime soon. I was compelled to write this review, on my amusement that 13 years later, the album is still eliciting such strong reactions on both sides. The people who dislike the album claim that, "Slanted and Enchanted" is a case of the emperor having no clothes, and anyone who likes it is just trying to be "cool." How do you respond to a criticism like that? It's hard because "Slanted and Enchanted" has become so ingrained in my bones, so entrenched in memory and summer nostalgia, so integral to shaping my eventual musical tastes, that it would be like putting myself on the stand.

Prosecutor: Why do you listen to this album? Is it because everyone says it's cool?

"No, I just -"

Prosector: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Bad production. Unimpressive lead singer. Do we really need to go on? Where were you when the album came out?

"Well, I mean I didn't buy the album until -"

Prosector: A-ha! This man was under the influence of critical acclaim.

"Well yeah of course, but I really do like-"

Prosector: I think we've heard enough.

As cliche as this will sound, "Slanted and Enchanted" is one of those albums that just takes some time to warm up to. When you first get Pavement, it's like switching from a pair of cushioned running shoes to a pair of Chuck Taylors, no support, uncomfortable, stiff - but once you break them in, you wonder how you ever got by without them, how easily you slip and out of them, and how good they look dirty and beat-up. Likewise, "Slanted and Enchanted"'s sound quality is dirty and scuffed, unlike the clean mastered recordings of other classic albums. That's just part of the album's idiosyncratic charm. More listens will reveal melodies kind of floating just underneath the surface. They are never obvious, except for maybe the acoustic "here" which is probably why even the bad reviews have praised this song. In the end, "Slanted and Enchanted" is really just a product of its time - the sound of a bunch of irreverent kids from California who wanted to have fun and make music. It never asked to be a classic. But no one knew, that in turn a bunch of other kids knew exactly how they felt.

Pavement's debut album marked the beginning of one of the best guitar-rock bands to have emerged in the 90s. But it goes further than that: quite simply, it is a masterpiece of its genre, an idiosyncratic record which has been endlessly imitated by other underground bands, yet never bettered.

While later releases displayed either their calmer ("Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", "Brighten The Corners") or wackier side ("Wowee Zowee"), they haven't managed to surpass their debut in terms of creativity and (especially) fun. And really, there is no other way to describe the overall sound of this record.

On the surface, the band's lyrics and songs seem to revel in their own amateurishness, dismissing any respect for the typical rock aesthetic. But don't be fooled by this uncaring attitude, Pavement crafted a set of witty, chaotic pop songs which are revealed, with time, as surprisingly complex compositions, justifying every blast of noise and every unconventional melody present in the mix.

Standouts include "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", a catchy, accessible tune which fittingly opens the record, "In The Mouth A Desert", and "Here", an unexpectedly emotional song which stands as the only exception to an otherwise irreverent album.

"Slanted & Enchanted" is an essential LP of our era, and one of those CDs that will visibly grow on you. Just make sure you don't judge it after the first listen.

Slanted and Enchanted is the second best album of the decade. It is a strange album that is at once both off-putting and embracing, abrasive and soft, absurd and totally sublime. Back when Stephen malkmus and Spiral Stairs were a couple of young 20 somethings, recording in the garage-turned-studio of '60's acid casualty (and intitial drummer) Gary Young, these were the seeds of Slanted and Enchanted.

Kicking things off with the fuzzy brilliance of "Summer babe", the album presents song after song of perfect pop numbers (In the Mouth a Desert), static-filled freak outs (No Life Singed her), and Fall-inspired ranting (Conduit For Sale!). In The mOuth a Desert's lyric "Can You Treat it like an oil well / when it's underground, out of sight?" seems to caputre the whole essence of the early '90's indie-rock boom. And indeed, Slanted... inspired its own share of imitators and indie bands.

Slanted signaled the start of a musical career for Pavement that has consistently topped most of the other albums coming out. Though they are slowly slipping into more conservative territory, we can always revel in Slanted's enchanted brilliance.

When I first listened to this album back in '92 I really wasn't convinced. My initial thought was "These guys aren't trying very hard." But after repeated listens Slanted & Enchanted started to really grow on me. Its not recorded well, the guitars are sometimes out of tune, the playing isn't all that competent and Steve Malkmus' disaffected and sometimes whiny voice is an aquired taste. So why did I keep playing it? Sometimes spirit and originality trumps a band's technical limitations. The ideas are fresh, and they have a personal take on rock music unlike any other band. I don't love this record (tho I do like it). For me Pavement improved with age but Slanted And Enchanted has a special slacker charm all it's own. It really didn't sound like much else around at the time yet somehow encapsulated a certain feeling that was in the air during the early '90s.

i loved Slanted and Enchanted from the first time i put it on. it is the perfect embodiment of a lackadaisical, slightly depressed, slacker-stoner, too-intelligent-for-the-suburban-teenage-existence, existence. When that guy at the top said that Slanted and Enchanted is like a pair of beat-up converse in a world of running shoes with arch support, he hit the nail right on the head.

It has been written that Slanted was the indie crowd's Nevermind, and that is no exaggeration. This album boasts no fewer than five timeless classics in "Summer Babe," "Trigger Cut," "In the Mouth a Desert," "Zurich is Stained," and "Here." Although the rest of the album does not meet the standard set by that quintet, few songs do. For the uninitiated, consider the opening lyrics to the majestic "Summer Babe": "Ice baby / I saw your girlfriend / and she was eating her fingers like they're just another meal / But she waits there / in the levee washes / mixin' cocktails with a plastic-tipped cigar." Are you at all intrigued? If so, climb aboard. You're in for a hell of a ride.

I enjoy going back and reading all of the mixed reviews of this album. Some proclaim it the greatest album of the 90s; others go on and on about how record critics are insane and only indie snobs could appreciate this. First of all, hearing this album for the first time and 2000 or 2001 is not the same as hearing it in 1992. An awful lot has happenend musically in the interim. When this album first came out, it was innovative and revolutionary. It reestablished underground indie music just as Nirvana was bringing its homogenized, radio-friendly offspring to the malls of America. Secondly, this album needs to be appreciated as an abstract painting would be. It's not a picture of a sailboat or a bowl of fruit before you but an acutal work of art. I think that a lot of people who are missing the point on this ablum can't appreciate its abstractness. They are fans who want their art to look like a recognizable image all of the time.

Pavement has been one of my favorite bands for a long time now and "Slanted and Enchanted" is easily their very best. It is a collection of pop ditties surronded in banging drums, pure guitar madness and cotton candy-like vocals. Every song is bracing songs like "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", "Trigger Cut" and "No Life Has Singed Her" are modern classics. If you like this also try "Brighten The Corners" and "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" and albums by Phish, Guided By Voices, The Sea and Cake, Elliot Smith, Tortoise, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (kinda harder rock) and Sleater-Kinney. Pavement is a true rock band, of which their are very few left.

From the first notes on summer babe to the last drum beat on our singer, this album produced an original sound that many college/indie rock bands tried to imitate. This is the noisiest and most dynamic Pavement lp. The lyrics are extremely well conceived and creative. The music itself is lo-fi mixed in with "fuzz" rock (perfect for fans of archers of loaf or centro-matic). Jackals, false grails:the lonesome era(my fav pavement song), perfume v, two states, conduit for sale (intense for a pavement song), and loretta's scars are all excellent tracks from S+E. Zurich is Stained is a delicate song that emphasizes SM'S carefree/expressive voice and pavement's unique sound. I've had this disc for two years and i still very much enjoy listening to it. this album is a definite must in your indie rock collection...

Certain albums define a time period and Slanted and enchanted is definitley one of them. This album captures (and pretty much created) the indie scene of the early to mid-late 90s and its influences can be seen abound. The songs on S+E are brilliant...they may be sloppy and incoherent...but they are brilliant and frankly just plain fun to listen to. The lyrics (some containing meaning and some pure gibberish) make a statement: put the music first. This is incredibly poigniant because the time period before this album came out was marked by so called "profound statements" in music that, after hearing the same messages on the radio over and over, become meaningless. This album simply says "hey, we are jsut gonna have fun". This will be one of the albums i look back on in my elderly days.