Face The Truth

Pavement fans and Jicks admirers might as well stifle that shriek of delight at the release of the latest tome from Stephen Malkmus, which is a bewildering exercise in uneven prog riffing and sprawling lyrical nonsense.
‘Pencil Rot’, like ‘Kindling For The Master’, opens promisingly enough with some interesting twangy Space Invaders style pings, but like most of the album, plays out like a good idea that wasn’t quite thought out to a fulfilling conclusion. Similarly ‘It Kills’ ironically asks for “something I can hang a coat on”, while it rambles along ­– not pleasantly meandering either like Pig Lib’s ‘Water And A Seat’ – but eventually descends into one of the first demented prog riffs of the record.
There are redeeming qualities however, and shades of the sometimes great songwriter in ‘Freeze The Saints’ ­– a cohesive, melodic and lighter guitar tune, that’s a little more recognisable as a song and not the boring ramblings of the terminally idle.
Where did it all go wrong? “I was shot for meat and left alone with a crow” Malkmus tells us. I’m biting my tongue.