Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
»
Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
Matador, 2001
RiYL: Pavement, Lou Reed, Built To Spill, Paul Westerberg |
It's also not a huge surprise that Malkmus' self-titled solo debut -- recorded in Portland with scene veterans Joanna Bolme (bass) and John Moen (drums) -- was splitting the fan community down the middle months before it was actually released. One acquaintance of mine insists it embodies nothing less than the surrender of the good indie rock fight that Malkmus, Built To Spill and Modest Mouse led throughout the second half of the last decade. Others have argued that the disc doesn't have one bad song amongst its 12 tracks.
I'm willing to cut Malkmus the benefit of the doubt and dip a toe in each fountain. After all, why should his first solo album have to put the memory of Pavement immediately to rest? Who's to say it can't just be a semi-serious collection of super catchy cuts? To be sure, the album seems less like a full-scale clearing of the decks than a bunch of "hey, why not try it" larks that just happen to be great songs. Malkmus is afforded the opportunity to mess around with crazy vocal inflections and personas, electronic noodling, some cock-rock guitar solos, and his usual arsenal of whimsical vignettes, and damn if it all doesn't sound really good.
Still, Pavement fans don't need a refresher in Malkmus' penchant for irony, and there is plenty of it here. "The Hook," a genial Mellencamp/CCR rip (think "Hurts So Good"), is purportedly based on the sad chump-to-sea captain evolution of Chris Elliott's character in the odious 1994 film "Cabin Boy." The lush, piano and slide guitar-laden "Trojan Curfew" is the only instance I can recall where ancient Greece is romanticized (the narrator gets "smashed on Ios" and is mistaken "for a Swede" by a "trashed, blonde Scandy" with "chopped tobacco in her teeth" and a "slurred medieval accent") for the purposes of a pop song.
Just what does one make of melodically bubbly, unusually upbeat numbers such as "Phantasies," which narrates the cabin fever of a couple eking out a ho-hum existence in Alaska? Or "Jo Jo's Jacket," an off-the-cuff "ode" to actor Yul Brynner that goes way out of its way to be silly (ie, Malkmus' girlfriend coming out of nowhere to utter the word "carcass")?
Let's not forget album opener "Black Book," which one-ups the dark, angular rock of Terror Twilight cuts like "Cream Of Gold" with some of S.M.'s most maddeningly cryptic wordplay in recent memory: "I took the locomotive to Kreutzberg / I passed through the scenery / And passengers got off that train / And they really surprised me when they said..." Let's also not neglect the '70s pinup boy pose he strikes for the album cover, his face ceremonially divided in shadow (how deep!! The two faces of Stephen Malkmus!). On the inside shot, he's at a petting zoo.
However, Malkmus resists the temptation to just confuse the whole issue with some of his prettiest and least obviously tongue-in-cheek tunes ever. The gorgeous, waltz-tempoed "Church On White," a eulogy of sorts to his late writer friend Robert Bingham, is the kind of universally excellent track that could have improved any of Pavement's recent albums. There's an uncommon sincerity in lines like "but all you really wanted was everything / plus everything and the truth / I only poured you half a life" that bodes well for Malkmus' continuing evolution as a lyricist.
The other real winner is "Jenny And The Ess-Dog," the best of the many "story songs" on this album. Some may long for the oblique reminiscing of Pavement classics like "Stop Breathing," but here, Malkmus perfectly paints a straightforward portrait of a happy hippie couple whose age difference ("she's 18, he's 31 / she's a rich girl, he's the son of a Coca-Cola middleman") ultimately becomes too much to bear. It's not the kind of slice-of-life tale one would want to see become commonplace, but try not to get both the image and the song stuck in your head for weeks.
The album definitely has some subpar moments, especially when Malkmus undercooks his concepts or puts his wit on autopilot. The Lou Reed-leaning "Discretion Grove" piles head-scratching metaphors on thick, amid swampy strumming that finally gives way to a sunny chorus. The trampoline pop of the curiously spelled "Troubbble" is a 100-second pixie stick of a song that surely could have gone on longer. The "Major Leagues"-ish "Vague Space" seems to be about nothing at all.
Maybe this album really does deflate the indie rock ascension of recent years. My hunch is it's way too early to tell, and that Modest Mouse and Built To Spill certainly deserve at least one more chance each to continue their trailblazing ways. Whatever it may or may not signify, Stephen Malkmus puts a smile on your face. It may find you rocking out on air guitar. It may even cause you to run shrieking to your Pavement vinyl. And it will remind you that Stephen Malkmus is one hell of a songwriter, whether you like him or not.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"