Terror Twilight in Bloomington, MN

Since
Pavement
switched course with each record --
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
was nothing like
Slanted & Enchanted
, and
Brighten the Corners
was decidedly different from the brilliant, warped
Wowee Zowee
-- it's a little disarming to realize that
Terror Twilight
merely deepens the sound of its predecessor. Guitars burst to the forefront every so often -- most notably on the dense jam
"Platform Blues"
and the shouted choruses of
"Billie"
-- yet they're usually used as texture. Nothing rocks hard and
"The Hexx,"
which was heard on the
Brighten
tour as a metallic epic, has been transformed into a surrealistic dream, reminiscent of
the Velvet Underground
's
"Ocean."
That's typical of
-- it's reflective, with the occasional flight of fancy that fits neatly into the laid-back flow. It's also the tightest record
ever made, largely due to producer
Nigel Godrich
, who helped reign in excessive tendencies in
Radiohead
and
Beck
and does the same here. The band still sounds like
-- their loping interplay is unmistakable -- and
Stephen Malkmus
' songs are typically dense and literate, yet they're easier to digest. That, along with the lack of
Spiral Stairs
songs, gives
a cohesion missing even on earlier
albums, no matter how great they were. All the focus makes the album feel a little less like
-- after all, this is a band whose imperfections were among their most endearing qualities -- and a bit more like
Malkmus
' first solo album, which it essentially is. Though it's hard not to miss the gloriously messy sprawl of
at their peak, this carefully crafted, languid recasting of their signature sound is effective and winds up as a fitting, bittersweet farewell for the best band of the '90s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine