Best PAVEMENT album?

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CR,CR comes out of the gate strong, but sort of falls apart towards the end. "Range Life" would have been better as a B-side. "Hit the Plane Down" and "Fillmore Jive" are about as dull as Pavement gets.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:31 (twenty years ago) link

"Fillmore Jive" are about as dull as Pavement gets.

aieeeee.....

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:32 (twenty years ago) link

b-b-but range life is brilliant!

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:36 (twenty years ago) link

I bought an official copy of S&E today. I must say, I'm enjoying it more but really it is so full of filler. Trigger Cut and Here make it worthwhile, but there's too much crap to make it the classic of which it is hailed. Give me TT or BTC any day of the week over S&E. I've said it before, but I really do not get the hate for those two albums. Sure, they're a little polished but it would be a falsehood for Pavement if they'd kept recording everything on a tape recorder just for the sake of sounding lo-fi. BTC has Infinite Spark, Shady Lane, Starlings In The Slipstream, Type Slowly, Embassy Row - all good songs.

Really, the official best is Crooked Rain as it's the most consistently great, but it's not my favourite. I think it really has to be a toss up between the last two albums. That said, I prefer Pig Lib over all of these at the moment.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:42 (twenty years ago) link

1)Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
2)Watery, Domestic EP
3)Slanted And Enchanted
4)Wowee Zowee
5)Westing (By Musket And Sextant)
6)Shady Lane EP
7)Spit On A Stranger EP
8)Stephen Malkmus
9)Brighten The Corners
10)All This Sounds Gas - the PSOI debut
11)Terror Twilight

I really should hear Pig Lib. I dunno if I need to hear Monsoon.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:48 (twenty years ago) link

pig lib is ok. malkmus goes zappa

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, "Range Life"? C'mon it's perfect. And btw Brighten has exactly two good songs on it.

― scott m (mcd), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

2? which ones? the last one is the only one i can stomach.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:10 (twenty years ago) link

I'm with Wowee Zowee and then Terror Twilight.

― dean! (deangulberry), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:14 (twenty years ago) link

"Shady Lane" & "Stereo"

― scott m (mcd), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:20 (twenty years ago) link

"if you say 'oh my god' another time i will shoot you"

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:31 (twenty years ago) link

"Range Life" is far from perfect. The way Malkmus's voice breaks on the chorus is just annoying. The sentiment is unusually cloying for a Pavement song. And it suffers considerably in comparison with the song it most obviously imitates: "Don't Go Back to Rockville".

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:40 (twenty years ago) link

o. nate o.tm

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:52 (twenty years ago) link

PAVEMENT POX:

zurich is stained
fame throwa
unfair
fillmore jive
silence kid
heaven is a truck
unseen power of the picket fence
father to a sister of thought
brinx job
kennel district / pueblo / half a canyon (can't decide!)

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 5 February 2004 20:12 (twenty years ago) link

The single for Pacific Trim -- because it has "Saginaw"

...and the Major Leagues E.P. should be mentioned somewhere

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 5 February 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago) link

S&E REDUX, BITCH

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago) link

gygax - why are you hatin on BTC so much? I'm a little perplexed, given your appreciation for later works from Mister Malkmus, which to me have indicated a precipitous decline in quality...

(and another vote for Pacific Trim for me as the most solid Pavement release - its too short for there to be any crap filler and all three songs are grate)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:28 (twenty years ago) link

BTC = half-assed crap (dressed up in Mitch Easter's finest, yet still crap). loved the early pavement EPs building up into S&E (their finest hour as noted above). "we are underused" and "fin" are the two songs on there that i feel any connection to.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

tack "fin" onto the end of "wowee zowee" and make an EP of BTC and TT and related b-sides and there ya go.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:37 (twenty years ago) link

"BTC = half-assed crap"

I guess I just have a hard time telling when Pavement was using their whole ass - after watching Slow Century their entire career seems pretty half-assed to me (I don't mean this as a slight, half-assedness can have its own kind of peculiar, devil-may-care appeal).

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

"Harness your hopes" should be on the list, eh?

― El Spinktor (El Spinktor), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

It's funny - I thought sounding half assed was the whole point ...

― dean! (deangulberry), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:48 (twenty years ago) link

I dont know if it is the point, but thats what he's got.

― Spinktron 2000 (El Spinktor), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:49 (twenty years ago) link

Song for song, BTC is Pavement's most consistent album, so I'm not sure where the "half-assed" criticism is coming from. Heck, even the Spiral songs on it are pretty good if you don't listen to the lyrics too hard.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 February 2004 22:56 (twenty years ago) link

you're missing the point!

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 5 February 2004 23:29 (twenty years ago) link

and another vote for Pacific Trim for me as the most solid Pavement release - its too short for there to be any crap filler and all three songs are grate

There's an extra track on the 7" version. Dunno if you'd consider it filler or not (but it is an extra song on a 7").

― Vic Funk, Thursday, 5 February 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago) link

Slanted & Enchanted.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:34 (twenty years ago) link

I'm happily surprised by the fact that this many people still care about Pavement.

Brighten the Corners.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Friday, 6 February 2004 05:16 (twenty years ago) link

Just listened to Brighten the Corners after a long break from Pavement and it actually does hold up really well. It sounded great on a new stereo as well. I never really got their classic rock thing when it first came out. Maybe I could hear it on Embassy Row but now it really stands out over the whole album. It has a groove. Crooked Rain doesn't last for me.

― ugly nora, Friday, 6 February 2004 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

S&E, followed by Westing...

― mmmmsalt (Graeme), Friday, 6 February 2004 16:27 (twenty years ago) link

More fighting please! This does not live up to the recommended Pavement argument level!

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 6 February 2004 16:27 (twenty years ago) link

I remember an interview with Malkmus in a German mag where he states that he likes Wowee Zowee best.
I vote for Crooked Rain.

― egon krenz (slaytrack), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago) link

Brighten the Zowee.

― boldbury, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

Wowee.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

haven't read all of this, so perhaps my post is redundant, but if the last third of CR,CR was as good as the first 2/3 (or, if the last third was replaced by Watery, Domestic) it would be an EASY #1. As it is, I vote (in a very tight contest):

1. Slanted
2. Brighten
3. Crooked Rain

― chris herrington (chris herrington), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:08 (twenty years ago) link

WOWEE ZOWEE

agreed with whoever noted that BTC holds up over time. a beautiful record.

nb: WZ must be played on random (or 'shuffle') for max pleasure

― Aaron A., Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago) link

PAVEMENT

Wowee
Zowee!

(Brighten the Corners still sounds great. I like most of Terror Twilight..)

― daria g (daria g), Thursday, 12 February 2004 01:36 (twenty years ago) link

Crooked Rainx2 is the jewel in the crown of the Pavement catalog.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:06 (twenty years ago) link

Slanted and Enchanted. In my opinion what sounds like "filler" when sober works when drunk etc. Put S+E on full blast when you've got a few people back after the pub's shut: there's not a wrong second.

Crooked is my second favourite, but I don't like some of the tracks.

― All Bunged Up. (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 16 February 2004 19:26 (twenty years ago) link

the first and last albums are best - s&e and tt. i hadn't listened to pavement for a while until the other night, when i saw a programme on mtv2 showing lots of their videos. i dug out their albums the next day and fell in love with them again. i've never understood the lack of love for terror twilight - "major leagues" and "spit on a stranger" are the two best ballads they ever did, and malkmus is on top form, lyrically. i played it to death when i first got it.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 16 February 2004 22:43 (twenty years ago) link

S&E: Luxe and Reduxe.

― Andrew Unterberger (Andrew Unterberger), Monday, 16 February 2004 22:48 (twenty years ago) link

1. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
2. S&E
3. Wowee Zowee
4. Brighten the Corners
5. Terror Twilight
Every song on CRCR is solid, and fillmore jive is one of the best songs, anyone who doesnt like fillmore jive is retarded.

― King Fame Throwa, Monday, 16 February 2004 23:05 (twenty years ago) link

oh i forgot westing, put it in between WZ and BTC

― King Fame Throwa, Monday, 16 February 2004 23:07 (twenty years ago) link

Slanted & Enchanted is the album that started it all. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is great, and at the time I thought it was their swan song, but it's only as good as it is in the context (IN THE SHADOW!) of S&E.

― scottontharox (scottkundla), Monday, 16 February 2004 23:34 (twenty years ago) link

I once read that Filmore Jive was Steve Malkmus's father's favorite Pavement song.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:29 (twenty years ago) link

three weeks pass...

OK, I changed my mind. If WZ ended with "Flux=Rad", it would be the best.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago) link

(flux=rad was my password to access the network at work many years ago...)

my favorite Pavement record changes constantly, looking back I think Wowee Zowee has been my favorite most frequently...

― willem (willem), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:03 (twenty years ago) link

0. Watery, Domestic...but that's an EP.
1. CRCR is the most consistently enjoyable album.
2. S&E
3. WZ
4. BTC
5. TT

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:24 (twenty years ago) link

slanted and enchanted

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:40 (twenty years ago) link

Terror twilight is frustrating, lifeless, and ocassionally just half-assed, to be sure, but it has more brilliant moments than even the previous two. More really than about any band you could name has ever put on an album.

So it's the best. Though I admit thinking so requires really acknowleging and lovin the brilliance Pavement brought to their last three albums. If you think crcr can even compare, clearly you have no fondness for their spacey adventurous metal-pop tendancies.

― Brian Mowrey (Brian Mowrey), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:52 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 14 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

what i don't get is why people bleat on and on about slanted and enchanted even though it sounds like 12 different renditions of "hit the plane down".

*ducks*

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link

it's 14 tracks

unless you're saying that your lying ears can at least discern the excellence of "Zurich is Stained" and "Here"

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Mind you I think sticking Western Homes at the end of Wowee Zowee is an almost fatal error. Unless, Matt, you think your life is going to end in bad farce.

― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Here and Trigger Cut are more or less the only S&E tracks I really really like - I can take or leave the rest.

Wowee Zowee is very good but it's more a jumble of songs rather than a consistent album. Like Troutmask etc, it's made for the random play button.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

was there a cover of "here" being played alot recently?

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

oh Tindersticks, of course. it was only getting played alot in my flat.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

dog latin yr makin' me sad

Slanted & Enchanted is just a great summer album, basically. but in a totally different way from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which is also a great summer album. I dunno. whatever.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

d00ds,
it's STILL Wowee Zowee.

― edde (edde), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

yes it is definitely wowee zowee. i will never in sixty thousand years understand how anyone could suggest brighten the corners, but y'know, no accounting for taste.

― you make chatting lame (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Mind you I think sticking Western Homes at the end of Wowee Zowee is an almost fatal error. Unless, Matt, you think your life is going to end in bad farce.

I wouldn't rule that out at all! But no, I love "Western Homes," especially as the ending for that record. I like its weird bounce and the way Spiral's voice trails off like a ghost at the end. "This is what I always wanted / a new home / and a place to breathe" - the song just has a great sentiment to end the album on, and where else are you going to put it? It's kind of an epilogue after the climax of "Half A Canyon."

I just totally love all five of those Pavement albums, and it actually kinda bugs me to see any of them put down.

Dog Latin, maybe you ought to spend some time with live versions of the S&E songs.

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

CRCR = sunny clear day
S+E = overcast and/or rainy day

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

It has to be CRCR for me, although Wowee Zowee gets better the more I hear it. Crooked Rain... was the first Pavement album I heard and the moment I fell in love with them. Saw them live twice; once amazing, once extremely disappointing. The disappointing gig was about four months before they split though, so I guess with hindsight I can't really hold that against them.

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

1. Slanted & Enchanted
2. Westing... (this collecton plays as a great album for me)
3. Wowee Zowee
4. Crooked Rain

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Pavwemnt should have kept making EPs instead of albums.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Web Frequency Indexer results for this entire page up to this point:

26 CROOKED
26 RAIN

20 ZOWEE

19 WOWEE

16 SLANTED

14 ENCHANTED

14 S&E

11 BRIGHTEN
11 BTC

8 CORNERS
8 CRCR

8 TERROR
8 TIME
8 TWILIGHT

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

One more for CRCR, the best high-school summertime album ever.

― cosmo vitelli (cosmo vitelli), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 21:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Matthew Perpetua, I have that Pavement DVD with pre-CRCR footage on it and while I understand it was probably a lot fo fun if you were there at the time and the whole indie rock revolution thing and the Gary Young what a nut etc. etc. But I find that the majority of pre-CRCR stuff either bores me or hurts my ears. I guess the point is that it's really badly produced but the sound quality is so thin and each guitar squall or snare hit just sounds like a pin to my eardrum. I guess that's hyperbole, I like a few of these tracks but none of them as much as later stuff.

With Pavement though it's always the first album you hear that you secretly like the best, even if (as in my case) it's Brighten The Corners which I have a very soft spot for, even if I do say that CRCR is the best.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Pavement's good, but not worth arguing over.

With Pavement though it's always the first album you hear that you secretly like the best

I'll drink to that

― marbles (marbles), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link

"Pavement's good, but not worth arguing over."

sure it is!
ever heard that 2nd disc on the CRCR deelux??
it's worth fightin fer!

― edde (edde), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

"With Pavement though it's always the first album you hear that you secretly like the best"

nah - cuz the first one I heard was S&E, and I like the middle three way more than either of the bookends.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:18 (seventeen years ago) link

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