#199 Pavement, 'Slanted and Enchanted' (1992)

Previously #135

This is the album that started it all for slack rockers, Pavement. Their debut record kicked off a new indie rock sound, it was lo-fi, it was stoner rock. It was simple, uncomplicated rock. Loud, noisy, distorted guitars paired with Stephen Malkmus’s laid back vocals. But it was the sound that had such an influence on the indie sound of the ‘90s.

The album opens with debut single, ‘Summer Babe (Winter Version);’ sludgy guitars and Malkmus’s humorous, cryptic and sarcastic lyrics set the tone for the record – “Ice baby/I saw your girlfriend and she was/Eating her fingers, just another meal/But she waits there, in the levee wash/Mixin' cocktails with a plastic tipped cigar.” His voice won’t go down as one of the classically great vocals in history, but his voice gives the music exactly what’s required and it’s a vocal style that has been imitated so many times since, and like I said on the ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’ review (#434), Pavement gave rise to current artists such as Violent Soho, Mac DeMarco, Speedy Ortiz, Car Seat Headrest, Courtney Barnett, Modest Mouse. The album has no conscious, it’s not overthought. It’s three mates creating a sound that would go on to define rock in the ‘90s, but that’s not what they set out to do. They just set out to have a good time and play some tunes, and that fully comes through on this record.

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