This one is early as well but I’m going out:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-re ... ruth.shtml
(never the full review)


Stephen Malkmus
Face the Truth
[Matador; 2005]
Rating: 8.7

Experimentation, wha? If you're a Slanted & Enchanted devotee, you might read any stab at reinvention as a death knell-- even though you were probably bored to tears Malkmus' previous solo efforts, you crank. But Malkmus is underdog personified, and unlikely triumph was one of Pavement's key draws. Another was their ability to forge illusory stylistic coherence despite their records' actual heterogeneousness. Appropriately enough, Face the Truth is dizzyingly eclectic, tracing a haphazard arc and often working exactly when, where, and how it shouldn't. Opener "Pencil Rot" supernovas with a boxy, towering synthesizer that would sound at home in a Lil' Jon beat. In marked contrast are the track's whip-crack beat and rollicking, John Squire-referencing guitars. But rather than blend, Malkmus stacks, and the result is comfy sonic largess. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain's "Range Life", which quotes the same Squire lick, sounds reedy by comparison.

From "Pencil Rot" the album leaps light years to album teaser "It Kills", which condenses Malkmus's jammy kick (see: Pig Lib's nine-minute "1% of One") into something infinitely more manageable-- a lightly swung pop song streaming with sinewy lines. The pilot ad for Face the Truth features an anachronistic female model, all seafoam green jumpsuit and sprayed-stiff coif, prostrate before the camera in a sexually self-servicing pose. As "It Kills" makes clear, the masturbatory insinuations aren't unintentional: Synths et al. aside, Face the Truth is, at its core, a great guitar record.

If "It Kills" is the fried egg squatting atop a bed of noodles, let "No More Shoes" stand for the whole Pho shop. Now, this sunset nostalgia business, I can see it getting pretty soporific if it weren't so well executed-- especially when stretched across an eight-minute, Kiss-quoting, free-soloing odyssey. Unlike "1% of One", however, here Malkmus drops a quick pilot verse and he's off. Fuck that check back in periodically crap, melody. You ain't my mom. "No More Shoes" rips for a full five minutes before returning to Earth, and when it does, it's changed. Espresso buzzing. Post-coital glowing. Ate-too-much tummy aching. A tousled Malkmus yowls like a scatological beat atop the entrails, before conceding one final verse. It's virtuosic, sure, but hardly wanky: Malkmus's guitar playing has matured from artful sloven to artful sloven capable of moments of electrifying spontaneity and elegantly verbose phrasing, much the way latter-day Sonic Youth have blossomed into punk Mozarts.

How better to follow Face the Truth's most musically longwinded number with its most lyrically concise? Malkmus's word play is generally more unabashed here than on Pig Lib, as witnessed by aforementioned "Pencil Rot," which blithers in stream-of-(altered)-consciousness: "I'm here to sing a song, a song about privilege/ The spikes you put on your feet when you were crawlin' and dancin' to the top of the human shit pile/ Shit pile." But "Mama" forgoes the invisible ink, painting a bucolic family portrait at a canted angle: "Mama's in the kitchen with onions/ Daddy's in the back with Old Hank/ Talkin' 'bout the lasers and bunions, talkin' disability rank/ No, we didn't have too much money." I've omitted the last line in the sequence because, delivered in a brittle falsetto and matched to the Jicks' taut upbeat kicks, it's shatteringly beautiful, and I'd rather not spoil the moment by trying to decipher what's being said. Other highlights include the balls-out sloppy joe anthem "Baby, C'mon" and the soft-twinkling "Freeze the Saints", which is bathetic in the most charming way.

Face the Truth might serve as a first encounter for a young generation of Pavement-uninitiated. If that's the case, congrats. I'm genuinely excited for you. It gets even better from here. But I get the sense, also, that a growing contingent of Pavement's alpha fans find Malkmus' new millennium solo conquests excessive, watered down, sappy, old, etc. Well, fuck, aren't we a party pooper? The reason Malkmus remains so vital is because he's aged gracefully; his music shows none of the sagging flesh of existential panic. In fact, there's still a breeziness to it that, while not as spry and unvarnished as Pavement, bespeaks a man who has no illusions about his age: Thirty-eight is young, and if "Oil Can" Boyd can still throw a fastball, why can't one of his generation's greatest songwriters and his Jicks master a few new tricks?

-Sam Ubl, May 24, 2005

I hope I get around to making my review because I will have my hands full babysitting this weekend.

Also thinking for this one that we can get two for one. Since Malkmus was involved with Berman again why not add your thoughts on the Silver Jews album as well. I won’t post a publication review of it but since I don’t know it I would like to see what people think of that album as well.

Are you posting to yourself?

I know people would rather talk about food, drinking or sports moreso lately. I hope that this will turn some people on to some tunes before the end of the year. If it works Great if not I will drop it.

edit: Open for suggestions if you think that we can make this a better idea. Right now I was going to concentrate on things that came out at the beginning of the year. Albums that you might not of played for a few month.

I thought about doing more obscure stuff and if this is the direction you want to go then I will go there. I just didn’t want threads with only one or two replies and that’s it.

i love mr. malkmus and i really like this album but i HATE "kindling for the master". HATE.

I know its a cliche to say this, but I have absolutly no urge to own anything Pavement or Malkmus related apart from S+E.

Settle down. It just seemed like in your 2nd post you were replying to your first one.

I seem to have been in the minority with my espousal of 'Pig Lib' but I have to say I was a little disappointed by 'Face The Truth'.

There are some good tracks here (particularily 'No More Shoes) but at least half of the album is Malkmus going through the motions and I expect a little more than that from him.

It's 46 out of 62 ranked albums on my list at the moment.

i liked it, but most of the songs seem kinda half-finished. But then again, all Pavement songs always sounded kinda half-finished to me. Whenever i thought a Pavement song was gonna turn into something great the melody drifted away or the song always ended. A lot of people like this about them, but it really pisses me off, and leaves me unsatisfied and feeling hollow inside.

Malkmus is a good songwriter, especially for an old(er) guy, but he's just not in the same league as other badass old guys like Waits or Cave.

I liked pig lib too, and I like a couple of songs of this one. But alot of it just doesn't work for me. I still listen to this semi-regularly, but I just play the songs I ike and skip alot.

I really wasn’t around too much today and was venting to all the non-sayers on the suggestion thread. Was in a hurry to go out and reacted without thinking about sarcasm.

Sometime I just need to chill...

I need to give this some more play; I'm a big fan of "Loud Cloud Crowd" mainly because it ended up on a mix I made. Its like I always forget to listen to the record which may say something.

I'll rectify that today with a spin or 2; anything by Malkmus at least deserves consideration in my Top 20.

it looks like i might be the biggest face the truth fan around here. i think it's sm's best solo record and i like the first one quite a bit. 'it kills,' 'baby c'mon,' and 'no more shoes' are three of my favorite songs of the year.

He's even chosen the hippest of asian cuisines as a comparison.

My problem with most Malkmus (and latter day Pavement): half the time I listen to it (usually after a long layoff) "Wow, some of this is really good!"....other half: "christ, this is boring me to tears"

I'm right with you on this one, TH. Face the Truth will wind up in my top 10. I listened to it nonstop when it came out, and haven't gone back to it for awhile. That will be remedied today, in fact right now.

And I'd add Pencil Rot to your list of good songs from the album. Although he does use the word "elucidate" twice within about a minute of each other in this song---I still like it.

Keep 'em coming BeeOK---maybe do two albums a day so we can get through more by the end of the year?

I've only listened to the Malkmus album a couple times and haven't connected much with it yet. But I didn't buy it so don't have much incentive. Wasn't a big fan of Pig Lib either, but did like that first one a lot. But sooner or later I'll probably give it some more listens. I obviously don't take these year end list things nearly as serious as you

But I do like the new Silver Jews. Only had it for a couple weeks now and so it hasn't fully sunk in yet, and it doesn't ascend to the heights he's gone to in the past with that unique imagery in his words, but it's a rousing good time anyway, and Malkmus lets loose with some pretty tasty guitar parts too. If you get a chance to hear the opening "Punks in the Beerlight, definitely do. Great song. Also love the next "Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed" with some very nice Malkmus noodling. Pretty quirky, but a more conventional sound that in the past. Sitting somewhere around the 7 region in my top 10 right now, but like I said before, not too serious, and haven't really bought all that much this year that knocked me out other than Andrew Bird.

Listening to the very cool little debut by The Recital called "Colour Up" that's really as good as many of the bigger names in my top 10. Like most little indie bands, they could use a little better singer, but he's not really any worse than the guys in the Shins or Death Cab, who probably use some pitch correction. Anyway, very tight little 4-piece band with some nice rhythm shifts and interesting melodies and some cool keys. Just on a little Detroit label. Fun CD.

I haven't really liked any of the solo Malkmus very much, save for the song "Us" from Pig Lib. I'm listening to Face the Truth for probably only the 2nd or 3rd time, but yeah, it's pretty boring. I can't really find anything about it that I like.

As for the Silver Jews, as Davey said, it's very good but not not Berman's best. I like it a lot, and it'll be in my Top 20 somewhere. "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed" is pretty much unlike anything Berman has done, a lot of awkward, edgy energy. The album feels a lot more frank and less calculated than previous stuff.

I finally have some time to myself after a weekend with the kids (nope not mine). Anyways I like this record but it has the same effect that all Malkmus records have had on me. Enjoy them while they are playing but doesn’t leave any impression afterwards. So consequently this record along with all of his albums have went underplayed in my vast collection. I played it the just this last week and will a few times before I make my list but right now it should be around 50.

The Silver Jews, on the other hand, is something that I will look into. What Drinky and Davey said has made me realize that I might have missed a very good record. I loved the first three albums but the last one wasn’t for me and so I was in no hurry to hear this one. It sound like I will really enjoy this record so thanks for the posts and d/l now.