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