I was never entirely sold on Pavement during the band’s 1990s heyday. I loved college radio staples like “Range Life” but roughly half of the band’s deeper cuts irritated me. I was suspicious of Pavement’s ironic sensibility and its affinity for jam band aesthetics.
My affection for all 161 minutes of Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal, the new expanded version of Pavement’s 1999 album, indicate I’ve become substantially less stodgy. It helps that I’m now able to recognize primary songwriter Stephen Malkmus’ channeling of literary titans like Don DeLillo while he and his band mates noodle.
“Major Leagues” and “Spit on a Stranger” have aged into a bespoke form of classic rock while the skepticism I once felt for tracks like “Speak, See, Remember” has been replaced with unqualified admiration. Besides, the knowing smirk that once annoyed me now seems like the only appropriate affectation for indie-rock musicians.