Brighten the Corners
1997
Matador / Capital
I'm gonna take the crown! I'm gonna take the crown!
Pavement's 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted was a revolutionary record in both the area of noise rock and lo-fi recording. Critics ate it up it's incohesiveness like a buffet, and to this day it remains the Californian group's most famous record. The follow-up, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain seemed an even more astounding success, as it flipped the band's formula onto it's head with a much more commercially streamlined approach of the then-popular college rock style, but still garnered the group an almost equal amount of applause. Following the sophomore album though, Pavement experienced a bit of a drop-off. Luckily the status they'd achieved from the massive compass of hearty compliments cemented them as a cult group, however never again would they truly hit golden-boy status. A rumor floated around the music world as their third album dropped, mainly perpetuated by Rolling Stone, that Pavement were unwilling to really step into the spotlight of commercial popularity. This arose from Wowee Zowee, the aforementioned third album, being much more dynamically creative than its predecessor, oddly marking a third dramatic tonal shift for the group in the span of three years alone. People might have been... overestimating Pavement at the time because it was obvious that Stephen Malkimus and friends were working with half-a-mind at all times during production of their recordings, and they probably thought that their songs sounded like smash hits at the time.
That aside, Pavement's fourth album followed up Wowee Zowee, titled Brighten the Corners, in 1997. Though it can be debated, this particular album was not only their lowest selling album to date, but likely their most accessible. It's unlikely however that this accessibility was a plea for success, as from several interviews Pavement has made clear that their records are spawned from a sense of fun (likely under the influence, but fun nonetheless) and less from a want for monetary gain. This would also become clear around the time Brighten the Corners as following it's release morale dwindled slower and slower until '99, when the members haphazardly called it quits out of exhaustion and lack of enthusiasm.
Although Brighten the Corners might represent a whittled-down version of a rather uncouth band, it does show the band in a seemingly more vulnerable light than when they were creating noise. In this more by-the-numbers setting, vocalist and guitarist Stephen Malkmus' voice is an untrained animal, often prone to painful cracking and struggles to hit high notes that his late-90's contemporaries could. The guitar from both him and Scott Kannberg is mainly fairly mellow and surrealistically repetitive with it's punk-like vibe, interspersed with grinding drones that are reminiscent of Pavement's earlier days. Often times the guitar will just cut out in odd hiatuses, leaving bassist Mark Ibold to show off in the percussion section with drummer Steve West filling in the background to Malkmus' depressed-sounding vocals ('Type Slowly', for instance). For the most part, Brighten the Corners maintains a slow, trudging college-rock pace, sort of like offbeat radio-friendliness, if you will. Occasionally it breaks into a quicker pace, such as on 'Embassy Row', wherein (with one of my favorite choruses in indie, I think) Malkmus turns into a condescending, bitter character speaking lowly of corrupt politics of the foreign kind. Really it's quite a treat, and a really obscure but fantastic gem from this group.
Although this album marks a bit of a change of pace for the direction of Pavement, it is nonetheless extremely enjoyable much more often than not. Don't expect a very noisy Pavement, but expect a loud and proud one.
2017 - The Frying Pan & Thatcher
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