PAVEMENT – CROOKED
RAIN, CROOKED RAIN (MATADOR RECORDS)
Released in February
1994 the second Pavement studio album is so good they named it twice. With Gary Young now out
and Steve West
in the band took an organic change of direction away from the abrasive and more
towards classic rock.
Even if things were
now more polished on a surface level the band retained the loose sense of
adventure that set them apart; keeping them sloppy and effortlessly cool in an
era when such expression was key.
It opens in
appropriately ramshackle fashion. Even
the song name is ramshackle being “Silence Kid” but due to the messiness of the
artwork it has come to be known as “Silence Kit”. In execution is contains seemingly the sound
of switching things on, of tuning up and get in the position/mindset to
rock. It’s a beginning on many
levels. Then like a jumbo jet it soars
over proceedings. From the off Steve Malkmus is soaring in solid fashion
ahead of pulling/bringing it all back before the end so as not to allow the
listener too much comfort. It is the
sound of being submerged.
“I wouldn’t want to
shake their hands”.
Motion maintains as
the drive of “Elevate Me Later” lifts proceedings in laid fashion as the fizzy
distorted gestures raise the roof with the revelation that “there’s forty
different shades of black”.
This is quite
melancholic and dark album at times. The
song “Newark Wilder” has often supplied me with morose lines during failed
moments. The lines “it’s a brand new era
and it feels great, it’s a brand new era but it came too late” remind heavily
of “Here” from Slanted
And Enchanted and the aftermath remorse attached to defeat and
frustration. As the words pile up and
riddle in tongue as sense of whimsy grips proceedings in an almost theatrical
formation.
In the past Malkmus
has been quoted as saying with Crooked Rain Crooked Rain he said they thought
they were going to make an indie Eagles
record. In a way the intention was a
west coast response to the noise rock from the east dominating the genre. From one perspective it was taking back
riffs.
“Songs mean a lot when
songs are bought, and so are you”.
“Cut
Your Hair” is in many ways the band’s “Smells
Like Teen Spirit”. Its their rocker
and most recognised track. It has an
amazing video which seems to encapsulate everything they are about right down
to Malkmus seeing himself as king and shedding a tear in the process. The song is actually about being in a band
from the beginning to the end, through the good times and the bad. By the end the song is exploding into the
kind of dense wall of white noise you wanted every Sonic
Youth song to be.
Coupled with this is “Range
Life” the other single from the album expressing more bemusement at the
reality of being in a band. With a Mamas And Papas
piano line and a Neil Young drive this
is the sound of feeling like an outsider at Lollapalooza. After years of trying to reach your people
they arrived only to discover these people were shit too. Perhaps this was another symptom of arriving late but really what
did Pavement have in common with the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots? Everything if you listened to MTV and all the other stuffy media outlets
cashing in on the moment. This was their
way of taking the bull by the horns and walking away.
The other big song is
“Gold Soundz” which stars them almost sounding optimistic. There is message in this movement, explicit
in letting off the listener in lowering their expectations and standards. This is a track that is fucking loved. And I don’t understand that.
Elsewhere there is a
more genuine jubilation in “Unfair”.
With his words Malkmus is relentless with a fully formed flow that could
almost pass as hip-hop. And the band
follows in kind as a kind of rollercoaster ride creeps to the peak eventually
letting go as all hell lets loose. It’s
a triumph.
“There’s no survivors”
As with Slanted And
Enchanted things begin to wind down towards the end. The chilled declaration of “Heaven Is A
Truck” continues to suggest their minds be elsewhere as one final prod of play
arrives in the bouncy whirling outro of “Hit The Plane Down”. With that “Fillmore Jive” closes with another
declaration and gesture towards sleep.
There is definitely a running theme in the grand mind of a slacker.
This is a summer record
through and through.
Thesaurus moment:
anfractuous.
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