Pavement

Shady Lane (Matador)
by Nik Rainey

Pavement? More like two-lane blacktop at this point – how you respond to their willfully ramshackle brand of lurch-pop depends on which side of the self-consciously painted dividing line you favor and whether you prefer a vehicle that propels you noisily from 0-60 in five seconds flat or one that sputters and weaves all over the road and really doesn’t care if you get to where you’re going at all. Personally, while I haven’t felt fully comfortable on Pavement’s side of the street since that shaky-handed masterstroke, Slanted and Enchanted, after which they dropped their rockist tendencies like an old muffler and acted as if they were one album shy of slapping a “Bachelor’s Degree Required For Purchase” advisory on each record (okay, Malkmus, you’re smarter than we are – now howzabout finding a key and sticking to it?), this EP, which features reworked versions of two tracks from their new rec, Brighten the Corners, and three new numbers, has some pretty engaging moments once you get past the pigeon-toed-undergrads-bumping-into-each-other-as-they-cross-the-quad-to-return-their-David-Foster-Wallace-books-to-the-campus-library tenor of the thing, especially the title track and the agitated “Wanna Mess You Around.” Hell, I might even start buying their records again if my student loan application goes through.