Album Reviews

On the opener, “Dragonfly Pie,” Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks want to lay a heavy trip on you, man. Dualing fuzz toned and wah-wah’d guitars, Mitch Mitchell (or Ed Cassidy)-like skin pounding (by Janet Weiss late of Sleater-Kinney), a plodding rhythm and a lysergic vibe produce an acid flashback swirl. Until the chorus, that is, where it becomes positively skip- on-stone jaunty.

The second tune, “Hopscotch Willy” keeps the fuzz/wah-wah thing going, but with a jammy, Santana-like feel set to nonsensical lyrics seemingly culled from something The Sweet might have thrown away.

What’s going on here?

For rabid Pavement fans, college kids from the ‘90’s who hero-worshipped Malkmus and hung on his every word, this stuff may seem shallow and precious compared to the old material, but dig a bit deeper into that and you’ll find elements of this.

For those whose college days were decades behind them by the time Pavement came along, this record is a homecoming of sorts, back to melodies, open spaces, improvisation and even a solo or two.

There’s no lyric sheet so you’re on your own if you care to hear the words, but they don’t matter as much as the feel and the sensory load Malkmus and his bandmates Weiss, Mike Clark (keyboards, guitars) and Joanna Bolme (bass, synth) whip up in the process of re-inventing old school rock for a new age. Catch a few couplets and you’ll find some nifty wordplay, even if it doesn’t add up to anything with structure.

Side two’s “Emotional Trash” sounds like a Grateful Dead number crossed with Lou Reed. It’s a long, drawn out ‘60’s style jam that drops cargo and then builds like a steam locomotive complete with lyrics about caravaning through Mexico and hitting San Francisco. “Out of Reaches” maintains that vibe and then “Baltimore” sounds like a Paul Revere and The Raiders number.

Side Three’s “Gardenia” hits Herman’s Hermits or Nick Lowe territory with Malkmus singing something about “Richard Avedon approving” above a “bah, bah, bah” background singer bed. I haven’t pressed my way through the thickets to figure out more.

The sound on this 3 sided release (side 4 is "art") is clean, well defined, tonally pleasing and well worth cranking up, though I have no illusions that it was cut from an analog source. It doesn’t matter. It sounds better on vinyl anyway, especially when well pressed on 180g RTI vinyl. I have no doubt Sterling Sound’s converters are better than mine and probably yours and perhaps the file was higher than 16/44.1K. The gatefold jacket is nicely done too.

Get this, play “Elmo Delmo” and you’ll think you’ve stumbled upon a long lost Spirit jam. There’s nothing wrong with that!