Londoners Magazine

Artist: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Album: Real Emotional Trash
Label: Matador
Released date: 4 March 2008

Chris Lo hears California’s slacker King leave the Pavement behind for a sunny slice of pure drivin’ music.

Pop disclaimer: four tracks on Stephen Malkmus’s latest album are over six minutes long.

But before you roll your eyes and presume Real Emotional Trash is an inscrutable piece of prog rock wank, hear this: the record is anything but a drag.

It’s one of the ex-Pavement maestro’s most unified albums to date. Unlike some of Malkmus’s past works, it isn’t spilling over with incongruous influences and ideas.

A dusty acid rock theme pervades the whole album, imbuing tracks like “Dragonfly Pie” and “Baltimore” with the psychedelic spirit of classic Grateful Dead.

But that’s not to say Malkmus and his Jicks haven’t brought anything new to the table.

Where many of this record’s forebears got bogged down in stodgy, featureless riffage, the musicianship here is light as a feather.

Deft, quirky arrangements on “Gardenia” and “Hopscotch Willie” bring a bounce to the album that ensures it rarely loses momentum.

If Malkmus has one flaw, it’s his inability to decide whether or not to take his own songs seriously.

This is reflected in his latest album’s title. Malkmus clearly considers this record real, emotional trash.

As far as we’re concerned, he’s underselling it.