capsule reviews of miscellaneous titles by
PAVEMENT

Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain –  (1994)
Comments: The genius of Pavement is that they tease you with how much better they could be at conventional rock than most bands, and then they step off to take a road less traveled, the path of experimentation, improvisation, and surprise. Pavement bring something like jazz to their garage-rock and their lyrics.  Just when you think you know where a song is going, it goes somewhere else. In previous efforts, they avoided polish and slick production, reveling in lo-fi.  You didn’t imagine concept videos with their music; you imagined four guys thrashing out songs in a basement.   For all of the brilliance of their breakthrough album "Slanted and Enchanted", which inspired a hundred non-musicians to try their hand at slacker-rock, those songs just don’t linger in the memory like the songs that followed on "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain".
    With this record, Pavement gave in to the temptations of melody and pop hooks.  The compromise was brilliant.  This more accessible sound seems to come against their will, and they’re being dragged up the rock charts kicking and screaming.  Make no mistake, it's still not formula rock; it just exposes a deep-set love for strong chord progressions.  At times, they veer away from pop into a country-influenced or bluesy jazz sound, as on "Range Life" and "Stop Breathin’". At other times, they sound like they want to play with the big boys, rocking the house with "Hit the Plane Down", which resembles REM arena-anthems. And when "Cut Your Hair" bursts into an irresistible pop chorus of syncopated falsetto hoots, you can’t stand still, even as the lyrics describe the inanity of becoming big-name rock stars. "Attention and fame’s a career!" Malkmus caustically cries in the song's searing finale.  This exposed the heart of the band's central struggle, making "Crooked Rain" an album with something serious to say.
   Like the music, Steve Malkmus’ lyrics refuse to make complete sense.  His cryptic, stream-of-consciousness riddles sound passionate enough, with glimpses of life in Southern California, difficult family relationships, frustration with the mainstream, and longing for a life less crowded and messy.  But they keep you guessing, as though the wordplay is part of the music rather than a message of some kind.
   The records that came after were an extension of Pavement's contradictory urges, this love for being different and yet this contrary compulsion to pump out the hits.  "Wowee Zowie" was a hit-an-miss collection of experiments.   "Brighten the Corners" and "Terror Twilight" acted as stylistic sequels to "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", but the constantly elusive lyrics grew tiresome, and the music stopped breaking new ground.  It was a fascinating tension while it lasted, but none of their efforts shone brighter than "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", when their desire to connect and communicate overcame their anti-establishment antics.
Outstanding tracks:  "Stop Breathin", "Cut Your Hair", "Range Life"
Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive