Pavement -- Wowee Zowee

 
6/10

The summer before senior year of high school, Pavement released their final album, Terror Twilight. The local college station played "Major Leagues" from that, and I loved it, and I bought that album, and I tried to get into Pavement further, but their other albums don't really sound like Terror Twilight. The other albums have this raw, lazy sound that I guess endeared them to their fans, but to me sounded like a man singing badly over a rock band playing badly. For some reason, I did purchase their middle album (third of five), Wowee Zowee, an aimless, wandering piece of work apparently fueled by massive amounts of marijuana usage. None of Wowee Zowee's eighteen songs stand out, and every time I listen to it, I think the guitarist has to be hitting the wrong notes on purpose. Still, the "slacker rock" does send out some great 90's vibes for 56-rambling minutes, and I don't mind tossing this on in the background. As far as active listening goes, this and the three other Pavement albums not titled Terror Twilight don't do much for me. I guess I prefer good music over irony.


1995 Matador
1. We Dance 3:01
2. Rattled by the Rush 4:16
3. Black Out 2:10
4. Brinx Job 1:31
5. Grounded 4:14
6. Serpentine Pad 1:16
7. Motion Suggests Itself 3:15
8. Father to a Sister of Thought 3:30
9. Extradition 2:12
10. Best Friend's Arm 2:19
11. Grave Architecture 4:16
12. AT&T 3:32
13. Flux = Rad 1:45
14. Fight This Generation 4:22
15. Kennel District 2:59
16. Pueblo 3:25
17. Half a Canyon 6:10
18. Western Homes 1:49