With four of the 10 tracks on Malkmus’ fourth solo album clocking in at over six minutes (with one over 10), this is far from the trademark lackadaisical, knocked-together genius many rightly love the guy for. He now plays with members of Sleater- Kinney and Quasi. But, and it’s a big but, when the alternative hero of old morphs into a rock behemoth more than willing to crank out guitar solo after solo in some kind of Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute act, is it OK to stop listening?
Even the most hardened Pavement fan will find their attention wandering about, ooh, eight minutes through the title track, and then again in Elmo Delmo, and possibly once more in Wicked Wanda. Relief comes with the sublime We Can’t Help You and the comparatively brief (but straight to the point) Cold Son, but it isn’t enough.
True, listening back to his other solo work, Pig Lib especially, you find it has aged well, so time may tell. But on the whole, this is a disconcerting beast, at odds with what went before, but in an all-too comfortable, slightly off-putting way, as if Malkmus has merely been killing time before the right band – for him only – came along.
