Terror Twilight

1	Spit On A Stranger 3:04
2	Folk Jam 3:34
3	You Are A Light 3:54
4	Cream Of Gold 3:47
5	Major Leagues 3:24
6	Platform Blues 4:42
7	Ann Don't Cry 4:09
8	Billie 3:44
9	Speak, See, Remember 4:19
10	The Hexx 5:39
11	Carrot Rope 3:52

Barnes & Noble

It's been seven years since Pavement's full-length debut, SLANTED AND ENCHANTED, gave '90s indie rockers their own, private Beatles, and while the band's oblique lyrics, vibrant melodies, and unfettered solos have never broken through to the mainstream, they remain the sexiest sounds in the ever-shrinking underground. Coming off the critical adulation for 1997's BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS -- probably Pavement's prettiest puzzle to date -- the new TERROR TWILIGHT finds the mayors of Slackville sounding just as gorgeous, if more lyrically direct and (gasp!) emotionally open. The countryish "Spit on a Stranger" and "Major Leagues" are exquisitely sweet love songs, while the bubbly, wah-wah workout "...and Carrot Rope" offers the touching line, "It's all right to shake, to fight, to feel." Yet, while the band trades in the nebulous noise of its earlier work for slowly unfolding art folk, this is hardly a portrait of indie rock in search of a 401K and a time-share in Florida. When the jazzy "Speak, See, Remember" busts into triumphant classic rock, you might find yourself thinking you're rocking it to Lynyrd Skynyrd. So sit back and groove on it. Like the man says, it's okay to shake. Jon Dolan

All Music Guide

Since Pavement switched course with each record -- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was nothing like Slanted & Enchanted, and Brighten the Corners was decidedly different from the brilliant, warped Wowee Zowee -- it's a little disarming to realize that Terror Twilight merely deepens the sound of its predecessor. Guitars burst to the forefront every so often -- most notably on the dense jam "Platform Blues" and the shouted choruses of "Billie" -- yet they're usually used as texture. Nothing rocks hard and "The Hexx," which was heard on the Brighten tour as a metallic epic, has been transformed into a surrealistic dream, reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's "Ocean." That's typical of Terror Twilight -- it's reflective, with the occasional flight of fancy that fits neatly into the laid-back flow. It's also the tightest record Pavement ever made, largely due to producer Nigel Godrich, who helped reign in excessive tendencies in Radiohead and Beck and does the same here. The band still sounds like Pavement -- their loping interplay is unmistakable -- and Stephen Malkmus' songs are typically dense and literate, yet they're easier to digest. That, along with the lack of Spiral Stairs songs, gives Terror Twilight a cohesion missing even on earlier Pavement albums, no matter how great they were. All the focus makes the album feel a little less like Pavement -- after all, this is a band whose imperfections were among their most endearing qualities -- and a bit more like Malkmus' first solo album, which it essentially is. Though it's hard not to miss the gloriously messy sprawl of Pavement at their peak, this carefully crafted, languid recasting of their signature sound is effective and winds up as a fitting, bittersweet farewell for the best band of the '90s. Stephen Thomas Erlewine