Stephen Malkmus – Face The Truth
You only get to surprise people once. Stephen Malkmus did that back in 1992 with Pavement’s Slanted And Enchanted, a signpost of ’90s alt-rock and a record of intense, startling originality. Through another four Pavement albums and as a solo act, Malkmus has honed his combination of push-pull melodies and angular rhythms to the point that it takes just a few notes of one of his off-kilter music and a single vocal yelp to say, “Yep, that’s him.”
At times, Face The Truth sounds like Malkmus is trying too hard to push that edge, especially toward the beginning. “Pencil Rot” opens the album with so much offputting dissonance that it’s hard to imagine anyone except true believers not skipping ahead. “It Kills” answers the seldom-asked question, what would a Malkmus song with banjo sound like? And the sing-songy arrangement of “I’ve Hardly Been” is about as soothing as a dentist’s drill.
But if you stick with it, Face The Truth also has some of Malkmus’ most straightforwardly tuneful songs in recent memory. “Freeze The Saints” glides along on a piano hook Ben Folds would be proud to claim, and “Mama” is the sort of pure-pop ear candy you’d expect Malkmus to sneer at. Even the extended workout “No More Shoes” is relatively tight and focused, for an eight-minute song. At this late date, maybe the most surprising thing Malkmus can do is aim for the middle of the road and hit the mark.