CD Review: Stephen Malkmus’ REAL EMOTIONAL TRASH
Stephen Malkmus: Real Emotional Trash: 4 1/2 Stars
Before the release of this, Stephen Malkmus’ fourth album following the breakup of his name-making band, Pavement, finding a relation between the quality of the man’s output to how much control he has over the writing, playing and recording of his songs was inevitable. Pavement, surely a spirited crew of chums to the end, could hardly keep up with Malkmus’ ability following the beautiful mess that was Wowee Zowee. Likewise, his first and third solo albums – the ones he wrote, played and recorded almost entirely by himself – were better than his second, Pig Lib, which was great, but at times uneven. Real Emotional Trash, Malkmus and his Jicks’ first album since the addition of powerhouse drummer Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi), is the most collaborative Malkmus-related album since he and Spiral Stairs were first destroying guitars in Gary Young’s home studio in 1991. This does make Trash different than any other Malkmus record; but don’t worry, it’s also very good and – along with Slanted and Stephen Malkmus – his most cohesive record, playing through with a very organic, live-in-studio feel, a rare attribute no other Malkmus album can wholly claim.
Does this added element of collaboration water down the Malkmus-isms that make his records so special? Maybe. Maybe a little bit here and there, but not necessarily in a way that obscures the brilliance of his craft. After a few listens, the meaty-as-hell guitar riffs and slow-pounding classic rock rhythms that open the album come off as an anthem for a new kind of Jick. Malkmus rips all over opener “Dragonfly Pie,” showing that he has no problem keeping up with Weiss’ every pounding expectation, proving that the noodle-y winks spread throughout his past were no joke. The song, like any good Malkmus offering, inevitably turns silly, with our man splitting time between his familiar girly voice and heavy, dirty guitar solos. The stoner/pop duality of this song sets the stage for Trash, an album that sees the band playing strictly organic music that sounds exactly how an album from a crew of notable 90s rockers bent on both 70s music and the quirkier side of Brit-pop should.
The seven-minute “Hopscotch Willie” is a surprisingly fluent trip, harboring Malkmus’ least obscure lyrics since his eponymous solo debut. Still a clinic in obscurity compared to the average college radio tune, “Willie” manages to be lengthy without ever feeling loopy, mixing solos and movements in a pseudo-prog, kitchen-sink-Zeppelin sort of way we haven’t yet heard from Malkmus. This is not surprising, really, considering the ever-growing amount of goofy guitar noodling on his records. Next up is “Cold Son,” one of Trash’s shortest offerings at just under four minutes. Here Malkmus again splices his stoner-rock and pop-rock loves into one, crafting a trippy-but-catchy song made to satisfy Wowee Zowee-era Pavement enthusiasts.
A clear focus on diversity keeps Real Emotional Trash’s songs from ever sounding too similar. Rumbling live-in-studio sound in tow, songs like “Baltimore” and, especially, “Real Emotional Trash” are at first challenging, clocking in at around seven and 10 minutes each. “Baltimore,” Trash’s default lead single, will appeal to the “jam kids” Malkmus himself snarkily sang about in the mid 90s. Full of silver-tongued lyrical poetics and what appears again to be a prog-rock approach to long-form pop, the song feels more like a journey than a jam, trading off memorable one-liners, hooks and guitar solos to sweetly stitched-together results. The album’s title track, likewise, attempts to be epic without ever falling into the loopy category. Malkmus knows what a jam is, surely, but doesn’t play by the rules. Rather than wanking around too indulgently on his guitar, “Real Emotional Trash” sees Malkmus working in chapters, building a cohesive song for the ages that displays his self-taught guitar prowess better than anything else he’s put on tape.
But, like we were saying, this is an album built on diversity – one that contains a few pure pop moments. “Gardenia,” for one, is unapologetically bouncy and sugarcoated with “bop-bop-ba-da-da-da” backing vocals; it’s the kind of wordy, weird and joyous song that only SxMx could dream up. Along with the aforementioned “Cold Son” and instantly classic sounding “We Can’t Help You” (think Wilco’s recent “What Light”), “Gardenia” reminds listeners of the man’s minimalist genius. He’s a master of left-field pop, and, unlikely as it seems, he’s somehow found a way to take said genre’s backbone and make it breathe. He’s writing songs that he and his band will surely be able to open up on stage when they feel like it – songs that, without being too “jammy” on record, are made perfect for changing each time they’re played, not at all different from The Grateful Dead’s folk-pop masterpiece American Beauty.
Collaborative, heavy in sound and full of weirdo slacker charm, Trash is another great chapter in the long book of Leather McWhip. Be it a Pavement, Silver Jews or Jicks record, Malkmus refuses to do the same thing twice. Calling this one of the very best records of his career – if only for its ambition, unique yet subtle genre-melding and skillful playing – would not be an overstatement. Calling it the first great album of 2008 is a no-brainer. (Greg Locke)
