If you are looking to Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' new album, Real Emotional Trash, to provide you with music that brings you back to Pavement's glory days, you will be in for a startling surprise. From the opening note until the final strum, there are few moments that would be considered classic Pavement from Malkmus, but, he takes listeners to the edges of his experimentations with rock.
The first guitar heard is dark and powerful and should remind listeners of the intense sounds of Black Sabbath on Paranoid. This is only a tease, however, as the other two distinct sections in this opening song play more along the lines of traditional indie style. The diversity in the first song stands as a microcosm of the album, which as it progresses, will continually surprise listeners with the unpredictable contrasts from song to song.
Despite this spontaneity, Malkmus manages to keep his own personal style present, which he achieves mostly through vocal delivery. Some of the weakest moments on the album come as a result of Malkmus' voice not fitting perfectly with certain song styles. Luckily, he sings along with his strong melodies most of the time. This is when the music hits listeners with full force, culminating in the album's most accessible song, Baltimore,"" where he discovers the namesake for the song after a steady buildup. This type of vocal performance, alongside his catchy melodies, keep attention on the stellar music, instead of the sometimes characterless vocals.
Aside from the stylistic strengths of Real Emotional Trash, there are only 10 songs in over 50 minutes of music, so there are plenty of guitar and instrumental breaks to keep the attentive listener busy. Most of the instrumental work succeeds when Malkmus is playing around with harmonizing his melodies, which prove to be the heart of this album. Similar to Neil Young's guitar work, there is nothing virtuosic here, yet it still shows great musicianship when melodies are intersecting and transferring from instrument to instrument.
Combined with the occasional reverb effects, this makes for some mesmerizing moments. At times even it garners the term psychedelic when the effects get a little spacey.
At the very worst, criticisms will likely surround Malkmus' dry vocals and the amount of time spent on simple instrumental features. However, even someone who believes these criticisms should find Real Emotional Trash useful background music as it fades in and out of both pop structure and instrumental breaks. But it takes little effort to look past those possible flaws and see this music is extraordinary. Its simplistic mix of indie beats and some psychedelic effects are truly unique.
This album should succeed in putting a Pavement reunion to the back of listeners minds, as it is one of the most encompassing and satisfying experiences to be released in quite a while.
