Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks - 'Real Emotional Trash' (Domino)

"I am not a present to be opened up and parceled out again," the former Pavement frontman insists on 'Gardenia', track seven on his new album. However, I beg to differ with Mr Malkmus.

STEPHEN MALKMUS: Either with Pavement or without, he remains the Real Deal.

From the day nigh two decades ago when the first scratchy sounds of Pavement floated in the ether the music of Stephen Malkmus has been the gift that keeps on keepin' on.
Much of 'Real Emotional Trash, his fourth solo album is decidedly low-down and heavy. It could hardly be otherwise with monster drummer Janet Weiss now a full-fledged Jick, alongside bassist Joanna Bolme and guitar/keyboardist Mike Clark. Meanwhile, Malkmus the guitar hero is on full display here. 'Dragonfly Pie', 'Baltimore', and the title track are alchemic combinations of intricate composition and unfettered jam.

Malkmus' genius is that he knows exactly when to fetter. These songs may sprawl like a desert, they may spread out like a jet's flame, but when they reach that last tract house they gracefully spread their wings and head for the unclaimed land beyond. Indeed, although Malkmus makes the Pacific Northwest his home, this feels like a California album. Check out how 'Real Emotional Trash' begins as a modern-day 'Tonight's The Night', before evolving into a road trip from the Mexican border to Marin, in the tradition of Pavement's 'Unfair'.

And dig those Allman Bros. leads.
Elsewhere, 'We Can't Help You' channels the Band's 'The Weight', tapping that same vein of late-night melancholia and early-morning lucidity. 'Cold Son' sounds like a cruise down the Ventura Highway. And no other song released this year will make you smile as much as 'Gardenia'. While I cannot get with the song's insistence that its singer is not a "present," I can sympathise with one line: "don't want to damn you with the faintest praise." That's what it feels like to write about this record, tossing around those historical comparisons, making you read about it when you could be listening to it. So listen, already. (4/5)

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