Customer Reviews

Terror Twilight

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Is it just me, or is this a REALLY dark album? "Spit on a Stranger" is a wonderful yet melancholy pop song. "Major Leagues" is twangy and sad. "The Hexx" strikes fear into my heart. And my favorite track, "Ann Don't Cry," is the definition of elegiac.

I understand all the criticisms of this album--overproduced, irrelevant compared to "Slanted and Enchanted" or "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", somewhat dull, almost a Steve Malkmus solo project. I didn't really like it, either, the first time I heard it, and only liked it a bit more the next twenty times I played it--until I suddenly realized I kept playing it. Over and Over. Like standing in the Louvre, staring at the Mona Lisa for hours, caught up in the enigma.

"Terror Twilight"--Never has an album been so appropriately monikered. Just like they've always done, Pavement makes concept albums about California without calling them concept albums about California. This one is all about what happens when you're in your early 30s, bored and listless, trying to recapture the enthusiasm of your early 20s (i.e., "S&E"). Instead of skateboarding home from your job at the cafe, now you're driving a Lexus, stuck in rush hour traffic, coming back from your cubicle job at some software company. I don't think I'm wrong about this.

I have been listening to rock for over 35 years. Through the decades, certain ablums have been special to me (The Velvet Underground and Nico, Patti Smith's Horses, The Replacements' Tim). For the past decade, though, nothing has really grabbed me like that. Oh, I liked Nevermind and Exile in Guyville as much as the next guy, but somehow nothing seemed to have that special spark.

Until I discovered Pavement. I was somewhat at a loss as to where to place this review. I love all five of their official albums, and I think that Slanted and Enchanted is probably still their best. Still, Terror Twilight has grown on me to the point that the hooks, melodies, and lyrics have become indelible.

Since I'm a middle-aged guy, my opinion may not mean much to Pavement's basic audience (or what I imagine is their audience). But from the point of view of a guy who has heard it all (or at least a lot of it), entered college when Purple Haze was in the Top 40, and been listening ever since, take it from me: Pavement can stand with the best of them!

The best band of the 90's, arguable yes, but many share the same feeling. Malkmus took over songwriting here, as if it should have ever differed on the past albums so it feels more like his first solo album rather than a Pavement record. This album is missing something that all the previous albums had and the strangest thing is that its not missed what so ever. This album is the most endearing work Pavement did in their 12 years of being a band. It's nearly impossible to not give this album anything less than 5 stars because, simply put, this is the album where Pavement sounded like a pop genius rock band. The only thing that is a downer on this album is the fact that it's the fairwell, swan song album. Even with that considered, the material is so wonderfull that you almost forget this is the end of the journey. It's like crying happy and sad at once. Pavement was once sloppy and imperfected which is what made their early records such a treat to listen to and, more often than not, a strange and difficult listen. It's amazing to me how much this is an improvement from the least consistent album by Pavement, which in my opinion was "Brighten the Corners." It wasn't a bad album, just not complete sounding. Terror Twilight is not only a huge rebound, but it's where Pavement shows they were always as good as the Beach Boys or the Velvet Underground. I never understood the "cool kids" who said they liked Pavement's early records and lost interest in the later material. Terror Twilight stands as tall as any of the first three full lenghts and any of the early 7 inches and EPs. The album is so good, that a track by track review is pointless. Take this as a pill and swallow it whole. You won't believe your ears or anything else around you. I'll leave you to it now as S.M. says..
"My Palestinian nephew got his face blown off
in a dusty craft."

As a latecomer to the Pavement party, I found their earlier efforts more difficult to dive into, at least initially. The raw guitar and unique vocal-style with those often bizarre, stream-of-consciousness lyrics created an overall lazy sound that was too much (or too little) for me at the time. Then I stumbled upon Terror Twilight (thanks to Nickel Creek's 2003 cover of "Spit on a Stranger"), a Malkmus-heavy, darker, yet more straight-forward, Pavement album that serves as not only the perfect segway into Malkmus' solo career, but also as a wonderful starting point for any listener who was unfamiliar with the band's earlier works. I wouldn't call it their best (everyone seems to have a different opinion here - mine would be 1997's Brighten the Corners) nor would I call it their most influential or experimental (1992's Slanted and Enchanted). I do, however, have no problem calling it their most approachable album and for this reason, it deserves high ratings. Songs like "Spit on a Stranger", "Folk Jam" and "and Carrot Rope" keep the unfamiliar listener interested while songs like "the Hexx" ease that listener into the idea of Pavement. And after going through their catalog, it is safe to say that Pavement is now my favorite band, thanks in no small part to their final album.

Although Terror Twilight was not hyped as Pavement's final full-length album as a group, that's what it turned out to be. First and foremost, you have to applaud the decision to make this the most seamlessly-produced of the Pavement albums yet, because it consequently makes the album their tightest ever. For fans who had always wondered what Pavement would sound like without the classic "lo-fi music" badge that they carried around the indie rock scene for years, this album gives you a glimpse of that. Secondly, Steve's songwriting is his darkest yet, which likely speaks volumes regarding his state-of-mind toward playing in the band at that time. The songs come out as some of the mellowest we have seen, as well. "Spit On a Stranger" carries a Beatles-esque melody in its verses--something which pleasantly surprised me upon the first listen. At track 5 is "Major Leagues", one of the finest songs in the Pavement catalog. Ending the record (and their run) with essentially the only upbeat song on the album, "...And Carrot Rope", is very interesting and a fair way to put this band to rest. A friend of mine once said, "If they were going to end [the band], they should have ended it with 'Brighten the Corners'". For shame. If not for 'Terror Twilight', we'd be blindly missing some of the greatest songwriting and production in Pavement's history. I'm hoping this record is a good indication of what Malkmus' solo record (due in February 2001) will hold in store for us.

Good music becomes great music when the aesthetic experience can live on its own resources without an analysis of its existential point. Pavement shows us on this album that life exists somewhere in between balance - the quality of feeling "right with the world", and vertigo - the apprehension that things are about to fall apart. Somehow this album rests transparently in this tension, and makes us feel comfortable that we can live there.

There are some things in this world that we will never understand. This can be for multiple reasons - from sheer complexity, to epistemic ignorance, to the encroachment upon a flashing insight to which we cannot fully comprehend. Steven Malkmus exists somewhere around these categories; perhaps even severing the boundaries between them in some odd karmic dance that incarnates him as a prophet or a devil. But none of this existential rambling really matters at all. The brillinace of Pavement is in helping us realize this for the purpose of just enjoying the music.

I don't know what "children in electric dresses" are. I may never know what "bright red ropes, periscopes, they've got every thing you would ever need stored under a chair" means. Or I may never know the significance of "a fetus in a jar".

But Pavement eschews complete incoherentism with delicate subtlety. "Cream of Gold" begins with the lyrics, "So much for destiny...Time is a one way track and I am not coming back/I dream in biege/Why'd you lead me so far now?" Here we hearken to an unusual sense of personalism and we seem to find a balance - a balance that is kept tentative by the signature rough and unpolished nature of the band itself. This is not a drug trip, nor is it the vacuous droning of innuermerable bands who wish they had something to be angry about. It is not a plastic version of chaos that punctures our ears, or the gossamer anti-melodies of over-produced celebrities acting as stand ins for true passion. It is more like someone waking us up to help us heal from the night before when we drank a little too much - a good friend who knows from experience that coffee and nicotene do not help a hangover.

So we awake from our painful sleep that never seems to extinguish the desire for more, hit play on the stereo, and gently tune into spontaneous cohesison that emerges out of the usual chaotic blend of cacophonous overtures and fragmented words. On some deeper, intuitive level, it all makes sense. So sit down, have a cold one, and realize that over-analyzing can drown out a good thing with the interrupting voices of our own thoughts. But perhaps I have overstated the issue... Give it a listen. This review may be pointless after all.

I have a theory as well, that indie bands are abandoned by "old fans" the better they seem to get. It seems you're not worth your weight anymore unless you crash and burn before you can achieve even a hint of success.

Pavement's indie-rock crown was dislodged slightly by rock critics who thought their favorite pets were getting a little too in-jokey for their own good (for a film parallel, see Coen Bros. & Big Lebowski) on Wowee Zowee, which oddly enough seems to be a favorite of many "Paveheads". Yet it seems to be the audience and not the critics who have thumbed a nose to the last two releases. Exactly what makes "Slanted & Enchanted" so great that "Terror Twilight" lacks? Amateurism?

Perhaps S&E was influential and deserves to be noted on Best of the 90's lists, but are we looking solely at the work, or also at the times we associate with it? Many indie rockers want to remember the moment in time when the band was THEIRS, and not everybody else's, so they view the early years as the best.

What they fail to see, especially in Pavement's case, is that their absence of mass popularity has allowed them to grow with a minimum of distraction, on their own terms. If you ever really got what Pavement was about, you'll see that they are older and wiser, but still more perceptive and subversive than 99% of the music world. Slower songs do not equal bad music. Static and lo-fi fuzz do not equal good music. It's just the medium used to convey the message, which for me, in Pavement's case, is just as relevant and enlightening as it has always been.

Terror Twilight is something warm and cool at the same time. It is shrugging and winking with grace. It is as diverse as Wowee Zowee yet focused. It is filled with great songs played by great musicians. It is, as most of Pavement's art, difficult to categorize, which is why they are adored so much.

It may be important to kill your idols, but Pavement were always more like our friends, which are worth keeping.

Unbelievably fine work by Pavement; in my mind, "Speak See Remember" is not only the most unusual and fierce cut on this magnificent album, it is haunting, terrifying, and uplifting at the same time. I am 48 years old, a veteran of the Northern California ballrooms, a guitarist myself, and have been exposed to every musical style imaginable. I have never heard anything in my life that even came close to Terror Twilight. The production values are the best; there is so much going on in the mix that it boggles the mind. Recommend highly, and don't forget, Malkmus at the Fillmore in San Francisco March 12!

Many years ago, Stephen Malkmus said Pavement would one day record the perfect album. Many thought it couldn't get better than "Slanted". But give this one some time and you'll sing it in the shower, hum it the car, drift back to its depth and humor. Exceptional work from a band already acclaimed for its exceptional catalog.

I don't even like this the way I like most albums. I like it the way I like water on a hot day. To hear it is a relief. Like proof that not everyone is either stupid or pathological. Myslef included. For sure. Terror Twilight is so perfect that no other words really come to mind. It's not invigorating or stimulating or soothing or sexy or tight or dope or any other cliche. It's just excellent music. If you like to hear music that is original. smart and instantly familiar, you might like this a lot!