Pavement
Terror Twilight
(Matador)
In these beclouded, tempestuous, and thoroughly SHITTY times we call "life," it's nice to know one can always rely on Pavement to churn out consistently catchy pop songs. True, Pavement have been branded poster boys for the stupid slacker-aesthetic that permeates a lot of modern music, but in reality, the band transcends all that (even if they're too modest to admit it). Terror Twilight, their first album since 1997's Brighten the Corners, is every bit as good as that one was, and maybe better. It just takes a while to sink in, though (to wit: the only song that instantly grabs you is the addictively hummable "Major Leagues"). However, after a couple of listens, you discover there's not one bad moment on Terror; it just sort of creeps up on you, gets you, and then you stay "got." Weirdly enough though, (and this is part of the album's appeal) is that Twilight has a strange and inexplicable sort of finality about it, as if it were Pavement's last splash. In that sense, it's a bittersweet collection of rock-solid pop songs that I challenge any other band to match.
Mike Cade