Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a relief -- it is very good, January 27, 2001
This is a great record, and it contains lots of the good things Pavement had going for them the last 3-4 years, plus a more adventurous attitude. The big thing to me is that it's FUN (a way too rare thing). The lyrics are great; they're in the same vein as the last few Pavement records, but still surprising, funny and insightful. The music is faster, more relaxed, and confident. The mood is positively upbeat. OK, it isn't a classic. But it's best record I can imagine Stephen Malkmus making right now. Considering it's a solo debut following the breakup of the 90's best band AND it's the best record I've heard in a few years AND SM is obviously still moving forward in an artistic sense... don't under estimate it when you listen to it and simply say, "What a great record." Some people won't like this record for a bunch of predicatably bad reasons. Don't believe it. This record is the sound of being simultaneously optimistic, intelligent and playful. And hey, not everyone fits that description.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better Than Terror Twilight, April 18, 2001
Now-defunct indie gods Pavement, while producing a few of the finest albums of the past decade, never made much of a splash outside of indie rock circles and never sold many records. So I'm pretty amazed at how much hype I've seen surrounding the first solo album from the band's frontman -- prominent, glowing essays in Rolling Stone, Spin, and the rest of the music press. Not surprisingly, Stephen Malkmus (the album) sounds an awful lot like Pavement -- after all, setting aside a few songs written by Pavement second chair Scott Kannberg and some instrumental and vocal flourishes by the rest of the band, Pavement essentially was Malkmus (particularly on the last few albums). It's not too far off to consider Pavement's last album, Terror Twilight, to have been the real first Malkmus solo album, much like the final Replacements album (All Shook Down) was really the first Paul Westerberg solo album.Which is a long-winded way of saying that, for better and worse, the breakup of Pavement isn't the biggest deal in the world, as Stephen Malkmus simply picks up where the band left off. In many respects, this album is far better than Terror Twilight, an album which, while including a few moments of that twisted Pavement alt-pop glory ("Spit on a Stranger," "Carrot Rope," "Major League"), was way too dull for my taste. After re-invigorating indie rock and tossing off two of the greatest albums of the '90's (if not the rock era) -- Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain -- Pavement went steadily downhill. While Malkmus' gifts as a lyricist continued to grow, he seemed to abandon his talent for coming up with a unique hook for each song; beginning with their third full-length album, Wowee Zowee, Pavement seemed to add music to Malkmus' lyrics almost as an afterthought. While this worked to some extent on the underrated Brighten the Corners, by Terror Twilight the music was totally lacking in energy. So it's a pleasant surprise that Malkmus has decided that, yes, catchy hooks matter after all. And Stephen Malkmus, while still playing to Malkmus' strengths as the crafter of idiosyncratic lyrics, is a perkier, poppier album than I would have expected. Tunes like "The Hook" and "Jennifer and the Ess-Dog" have that instantly-hummable quality of early Pavement, coupled with the verbal jabs that make Malkmus a stand-out in indie circles. The former is an allegorical I've-Grown-Up-And-Gone-Solo tune reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's first post-Genesis single "Solsbury Hill"; the latter is an almost-melodramatic retelling of a May-December romance between a rich teenage girl and her boyfriend who plays in a 60's cover band. And despite Malkmus' rep as a snide purveyor of slacker irony, the songs are earnest and benefit from the personal warmth he started bringing to his lyrics around the time of Brighten the Corners. It's not a perfect album, and even at its catchiest lacks the go-for-broke abandon of early Pavement, but it shows that, unlike Westerberg, Malkmus went solo with a few good ideas still kicking around.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good... not great, February 21, 2001
Because SM's voice is so unique (think a pre-pubescent Lou Reed trying his absolute hardest to sing as well as he can), comparisons between this, his first solo outing, and Pavement - the band he fronted and wrote most of the material for, a band considered by many to be one of the most original and wonderful rock groups of its era - were going to be inevitable. Yet this album comes as quite a surprise, primarily because it's much less like a Pavement record than even Malkmus himself had warned in pre-release press (the only Pave it resembles is some of the Terror Twilight material, and the very Malkmus-dominated Pacific Trim EP). There's an earnestness in the way SM seems to have approached these solo songs, as if genuinely trying to forge something new that is all his own, all the while inspired by music of which he is unabashedly a fan. Pieces like Phantasies, Troubbble and Jenny & the Ess Dog are unlike anything Pavement recorded, and the New Wave pop vibe that sets the pace for much of the record works wonderfully under the guidance of SM's unique vocal stylings. So why isn't it great? The trouble with this album is - at least musically - no fault of Malkmus': you simply miss Pavement. Listening to tunes like Vague Space and Jo Jo's Jacket, the Pavement fan rues the breakup all the more, as these tracks would have been absolutely incredible if recorded by the old band. One can't help but long for the yips and off-key screech-alongs of Bob Nastanovich, or for the fat bounce of Mark Ibold's bass playing. The Jicks, as SM's new band are called, are all good musicians, perhaps even better technically than the guys in Pavement were. But what's lacking is the sense of group effort on the brink of chaos, something that should never work and yet miraculously does. That was Pavement. Here we have an exceptionally gifted singer-songerwriter who will undoubtedly provide us with beautiful and original material for years to come, all on his own. Only there's just something a little less original about that.
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Stephen Malkmus shares his favorite music with Amazon customers. See all artists' picks on our Music You Should Hear page.
~ Stephen Malkmus
~ Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
~ Pavement
~ Pavement
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by Stephen Malkmus 
