Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had a chance to rip a couple of CDs that I’d left back home, and among them was the Matador reissue of Pavement’s 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted. What I love best about this album is its cohesion as a collection of songs. From the bone-dry delivery on “Summer Babe” through the scatterbrained hi-jinx of “Fame Throwa” to the drunken 6/8 drum pattern on “Our Singer,” the songs hold up all the way through. Even Spiral’s throwaway “Two States” is essential to the mix.
Anyway, one of my favorite songs from this album is “In the Mouth of a Desert.” The song displays the band’s incredible ability to blend really bleak, dissonant sounding guitar with effortless, off-hand pop hooks that you don’t really notice are there until it’s too late and you can’t make it through a single day without singing at least a line or three of Stephen Malkmus’ inimitable lyrics.
Here’s a live version of “Desert” from 1994 that features a cool introduction called “Heckler Spray.”
Yee-uh: Heckler Spray/In the Mouth of a Desert
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