“I’ve got style / Miles and miles / So much style that it’s wasted”
When Melody Maker selected their albums of the year in 1992 it was a slight surprise to discover that Pavement’s Slanted & Enchanted had ended up as Number Two. It looked like a classic case of music journos being hypnotised by the hip and transient. But it’s hard to predict these things. 30 years on the legacy of REM (who Pavement once wrote a tribute song to) is far less secure and they were at #1. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy were at 3, and I can’t remember what they sound like (possibly their name is the clue).
“Fruit covered nails / lies and betrayals”
Pavement had been around for a few years on the California scene and the in-crew already knew these tracks when the rest of the world got to hear them. There’s also a pre-S&E world which features Debris Slide and Box Elder, that are great, but the effortless insouciance of the debut album is still a quantum leap. Like Unknown Pleasures, Entertainment! Marquee Moon, Colossal Youth and Is This It?, it emerges fully formed as a statement of intent. Not to say there aren’t many brilliant moments on Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, Wowee Zowee and Brighten All Corners, certainly. It’s only on Terror Twilight that they sound less than inspired, and by that stage Stephen Malkmus was appearing on stage handcuffed to the mike stand, like Prince when he had “Slave” tattooed on his forehead, so perhaps not surprising.
“Ex magician / still does his tricks”
What was the magic formula of S&E? Alchemy, a happy hybrid. No one inhabited the slacker ethos more snugly: underachieving and proud of it, a time when Homer Simpson ruled the zeitgeist. Malkmus and co weren’t alone in identifying Hex Enduction Hour as the cornerstone of the early ‘80s from which to build a mansion. But reaching behind that they located Swell Maps as their key influence, with their angular experimentalism rather than the austerity of Joy Division or the punk-funk of Gang of Four, the minimalism of Young Marble Giants or the neo-psychedelia of the Bunnymen and the Teardrops. That was a masterstroke, but in the wrong hands could have sounded merely shambolic.
“I’ve been crowned / The king of it”
Pavement songs never quite did what you thought they were going to do, except for the ones like Two States! that did. Sure, Perfume-V sounds like New Face in Hell and Our Singer is a photocopy of Hip Priest. But, you know, have a listen to Elves by the Fall or, more absurdly their tribute to Spinal Tap, Athlete Cured. Pavement still sound like Pavement even when they’re trying to sound like The Fall, and anyway it’s more Midget Submarines and Read about Seymour.
“I was dressed for success / but success it never came”
The groups that came after Pavement tried channelling their off-kilter breezy-cynical riff, but it’s an impossible act to replicate. Some discovered their own thing over time, like Built To Spill and Yo La Tengo, even, arguably, Beck, whose launch effort Mellow Gold has many of the hallmarks of S&E (check out Pay No Mind, a reinterpretation of ‘Here’). Some were a couple of inches away from distinctiveness but that’s all it takes in this game. You can see why Pavement are the mythical band, but it’s still a surprise that Plastic Ashtray by Urusei Yatsura only has 18,000 listens.
“Someone took in these pants / Somebody painted over paint / Painted wood”
I’ve added on a couple of tracks from Watery, Domestic, the EP that followed S&E, and Gary Young’s last contribution. Steve West is a better drummer but something was lost in the mix. Never quite the same after this.
Tracklist:
Summer babe, Pavement
Get away, Yuck
No life singed her, Pavement
Plastic ashtray, Urusei Yatsura
Shoot the singer, Pavement
The skills of the star pilot, Butterglory
In the mouth a desert, Pavement
Nerves, Silkworm
Here, Pavement
Secret for Julie, Eric’s Trip
Texas never whispers, Pavement
Web in front, Archers of Loaf
Loretta’s scars, Pavement
Had a fantastic, Clearance
Zurich is stained, Pavement
You’re so great, Blur
Baptist Blacktick, Pavement
Licensed to confuse, Sebadoh