Pavement – ‘Slanted and Enchanted’
November 14, 2002
Released in May 1992, Pavement’s master stroke “Slanted and Enchanted,” an album of treble-charged, smart-alec sub pop from five guys living in five different locales, seemingly came from out of nowhere, and Matador records is celebrating the passing of 10 years by rereleasing it as a two-disc set.
“Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Redux” chronicles the lo-fi beginnings of the band on the brink of breakthrough success before breaking up in 1999.
-Beginning with the seductive slice of slap-dash pop, “Summer Babe,” a song of stuttering rhythms that sounds as if it were performed in slow motion, Pavement’s first full-length stands out like a tourist in New York City by combining ramshackle melodies, fuzzy guitars and off-kilter drumming with the dry, droll vocal style and cryptic lyrics of wordsmith and frontman Stephen Malkmus.
Malkmus’ lyrical wordplay on each successive release was the band’s primary strength and chief highlight, and two contributions best reflecting this on their high watermark were “Trigger Cut” (“lies and betrayals/ fruit covered nails/ electricity and lust”) and “No Life Singed Her” (“I’ve got a secret for you/ I cut your angel in two/ I left it bleeding/ and soaked it with a dry sponge”).
Pavement wasn’t just a one-man show. Former Pavement drummer Gary Young shows considerable imagination on the obscure narrative “Conduit For Sale,” varying his propulsive backbeats with deft and colorful use of elaborate patterns on the tom-toms. Malkmus and co-founder Spiral Stairs contribute jagged guitar passages, recalling early doses of The Fall and Sonic Youth.
Simultaneously released with the “Slow Century” double DVD, which chronicles the band’s entire career, Matador’s extensive reissue is paved with gold and includes an hour and a half of extra material (48 tracks in all) following the album’s initial release: the “Watery, Domestic” EP, two B-sides, two separate John Peel radio sessions and 13 live tracks from a 1992 London show, which previously only were available on the “Stray Slack” bootleg.