KEY POINTS:
Stephen Malkmus and Jicks
Real Emotional Trash
(Spunk!)
Rating: * * * *
Verdict: Best album since his Pavement days
Stephen Malkmus, the former frontman of influential American indie band Pavement, prolific songwriter, and singer of slacker anthems, was always bent but he's never sounded as gloriously twisted as he does on Real Emotional Trash. Since Pavement called it quits in 1999 he's released three solo albums and this is the best yet. It's arguably also the best album he's done since Pavement's two classics, Slanted and Enchanted (1992) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994).
The title track, a meandering and smouldering 10-minute epic, starts off beautiful enough but haunting guitars and a jinxed synth escalate into what becomes a rollicking road trip groove as Malkmus yelps and hollers his way across the Mexican border.
The album, on first impressions, could come across as dark. However, while a song like Dragonfly Pie has moments of doomed, distorted guitars and lumbering dynamics _ like Malkmus fronting Sabbath _ he suddenly cheers you up with his adolescent lilt. Then there's the ditty Cold Son which comes to a delightfully shambolic end in typical Pavement fashion and the jaunty Gardenia is punctuated with sweet 60s-styled bah bah bahs.
Malkmus writes great indie pop songs, but this album is about taking these perfect tunes on a noisy, sprawling and sonic journey. It's a wicked trip.
