While many ’90s bands have reunited in recent years, it’s important to note that Pavement’sStephen Malkmus never truly went away. Easy as it’s been to pine for Pavement, it’s also easy to have forgotten that Malkmus continues to evolve and experiment, toying with synthesizers and electronics and with shape-shifting prog-rock, both solo and with his band The Jicks. So, while Pavement fans may have to wait a little longer (if not forever) for new songs following last year’s reunion, Malkmus’ latest Jicks record, Mirror Traffic, is among his best post-Pavement offerings to date.
That’s a credit to Malkmus and fellow “slacker” iconoclast Beck — who produced the album — because the former’s music is not always an easy listen. While his songs are often impeccably arranged with catchy, sing-song melodies, there’s always been an off-kilter quality to his music, making it feel like it’s about to fall apart. Chord progressions don’t resolve where you want them to, he regularly changes keys mid-stream — often only for a few bars — and there’s enough dissonance and squawks of guitar noise to give the songs a sneering edge.
Malkmus’ lyrics are constructed to be elusive. His oblique stream-of-consciousness songs, with their sardonic wit and hyper-literate descriptions of mundane observations, ask willing fans to parse the lyrics themselves. Malkmus writes lines as much for their encrypted meanings as for the way the words sound rhythmically against his abrupt melodies and messy guitar riffs.
Still, while Mirror Traffic‘s punchy urgency has the feeling of being loose and unruly, Malkmus and his Jicks are deceivingly turn-on-a-dime tight as a band, thanks to stellar musicianship from Mike Clark, Joanna Bolme and especially Janet Weiss, whose drums give every song a throttling pulse. (Weiss has since left the band to form WILD FLAG.)
