Pavement Album: “Terror Twilight”

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!