#92...

#92 - Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

Well, here's another band I'd heard of but not actually heard. I can see this is going to take place quite often.

Coming at a time when bands such as the Pixies had just about been and gone (but most certainly left their mark, like an Irish Wolfhound in a pack of chihuahuas), Pavement released this, their debut album. And clearly, they had their influences. The opening chords, lazy drum beat and lumbering bass remind me very much of the Pixies themselves, kinda like a slower "Debaser"; a more defunct "Monkey Gone To Heaven"; with an added lazy-ass more-talkative-than-singative voice Rivers Cuomo could sue for copyright infringement. 

"In The Mouth Of A Desert" and "Loretta's Scars" are also, seemingly, a Pixies-esque humdrum of music. But I think I might be taking this comparison a little too far. Nevertheless, those two tracks contend for my favourite on the album along with opener "Summer Babe (Winter Version)".

The hook in "No Life Singed Her", screamed by the lead singer - fucked if I or anyone else knows what he says - reminds me very much of Gorillaz's "Glitter Freeze", namely because of it's Mark E. Smith-ness in it's delivery. Unsurprisingly, considering Smith sued them for being a rip-off of The Fall. Similarly, on "Conduit For Sale!", a collection of words is listed off as a vocal, once directly over the rest of the band onomatopoeiaising shit up (2:04 - 2:11) is like Smith's relaxed but firm release of random statements on that track from Plastic Beach. But anyway, enough of cartoons.

Some of the tracks - namely "Zurich is Stained" and "Two States" - seem too short. The former track in particular, because it's one of the more relaxed songs that can be slipped onto repeat in order for it to be done justice. The latter, because it sounds like an American Clash slipping in a cheeky dig at the current socio-political affairs of the US. But hey, I'm conjecturing here. At the same time though, "Chelsey's Little Wrists" sounds itself like a filler, as if they wanted to slip on some form of noise for 76 seconds: a rag-tag mess of screaming, overdrive, poor drumming and what sounds like an oompa-loompa moshpit at the climax. 

There's a certain sound that come from this band; uniquity isn't the word, because nowadays, nothing is unique. And doing some research, they weren't original. But everyone has their influence. I don't know...there's just something endearing to the music on Slanted and Enchanted - something surf-rock-ish, that I can't place; something that makes me want to re-listen, as I feel I will have to with quite a collection of albums throughout this saga.

They do know how to throw a little sentimentality into their tracks though, from time to time. For example, had I been a foppish-haired skater boi teen in the early nineties, I'm sure "Here" would have been my key cover song to make those like-minded girls weak at the knees. 

Key Tracks: "In The Mouth Of A Desert"; "Summer Babe (Winter Version)"; "Loretta's Scars"; "Two States"

How's That For Indie?: Rather than signing to a major label like many bands who started up in the late '80's had done, Pavement - for their entire career - remained on independent labels. Take that, EMI, Sony, et al.