Pavement: Terror Twilight [MATADOR]

Why you'll love it

This Matador pressing comes from the label's Low Price Vinyl Series, which makes it a fine way into Pavement. Nigel Godrich, fresh from Radiohead and Beck, produced, and Jonny Greenwood plays harmonica on two songs.

This edition

• Matador Low Price Vinyl Series

About the album

Nigel Godrich was a Pavement fan, took the job without having met the band, and asked for royalties rather than a fee. He wanted a record that "stood up straighter" than the gloriously loose albums before it, and Terror Twilight is exactly that: Stephen Malkmus's most polished, melodic set with the band. Many of the songs first surfaced at a pair of Malkmus solo shows in California in August 1998.

Sessions started in Sonic Youth's studio in lower Manhattan, moved to RPM Studios near Washington Square Park, and finished in London at RAK and Godrich's own studio. "Spit on a Stranger" opens gently, "Major Leagues" is one of Malkmus's loveliest songs, "Folk Jam" and "Cream of Gold" twist and turn, and Dominic Murcott of the High Llamas drums on two tracks, Malkmus sits behind the kit on another, and Jonny Greenwood blows harmonica on "Platform Blues" and "Billie." The album closes with the jaunty "...And Carrot Rope."

It was the last Pavement album before the band went on a long break, and Matador gave it an expanded reissue in 2022 as Farewell Horizontal. The running order travels from a stranger to a carrot rope, which is about as Pavement as a journey gets.

Also at Kops: more Pavement on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Matador (cat# OLE 260-1), a reissue of the 1999 album.