Painting titled The Magus Hermogenes Casting his Magic Books into the Water by Lorenzo Monaco, c. 1400
Sticking to his "every three years" album release schedule, Stephen Malkmus and his Jicks are back with their first LP since 2008's Real Emotional Trash. Mirror Traffic is a solid collection of songs, maybe his best since his self-titled "solo" debut record of 2001. For a lot of casual fans, Stephen Malkmus is still the measuring stick of Malkmus's post-Pavement records (hardcore fans prefer Pig Lib, but they are kuh-kuh-kuh-krazay!) This one compares fairly favorably - with its emphasis on elastic, loping melodies and chill vibes, it's like a hidden-in-the-attic deformed twin to Terror Twilight. And celebroducer Beck adds a variety of nice, subtle touches to the songs to give them some depth - the echoey horns lurking in the background of "No One Is (As I Are Be)", the echoey tambourine lurking in the background of "Asking Price", the echoey "aah-aah" vocals lurking in the background of "Spazz"... okay, maybe that's not really a "variety" of embellishments, but the songs sound pretty good.
A problem with Malkmus's records has long been his mistaken impression that people are interested in him as a guitarist, leading him to try too hard to incorporate a variety of playing styles into his records while short-changing his lyrical contributions. That is still somewhat of a problem on Mirror Traffic, although the noodle-y jam quotient is lower here than its been in ages. Still, the longest songs are predictably my least favorites ("Brain Gallop" is passable, but don't get me started on the other two five minute tracks), and the lyrics could have been thought through a little better in some places. But there are plenty of great slack-pop moments to enjoy - the one-note riff of "Stick Figures in Love", the hooky chorus of album-opener "Tigers", and the sweet, sing-song melody of "Fall Away", to name a few. And then there's "Senator", where Malkmus tells us about the universality of man's desire for - uh - a corndog or something.
"Senator" by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
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