Mirror Traffic

With last year’s Pavement reunion and Best Of seeing the much blathered-about band receive long-delayed mainstream recognition, Stephen Malkmus is clearly feeling the wind at his back – and it shows on this, his fifth release since Pavement originally called it a day.
Louche wit, lightness of touch, breezy songs and an unshakeable air of relaxed positivity – as well as an extremely tasty production by everyone’s favourite Scientologist, Beck – are Mirror Traffic’s secret weapons.
It’s hard not to be reeled-in by baroque pop opener ‘Tigers’, the woozy hypno-guitar of ‘Brain Gallop’ and the knackered cynicism of ‘Senator’ (sample lyric: “I know what the senator wants/What the senator wants is a blowjob”).

‘S-Malk’ (hey, it might catch on) also provides an excellent smoocher (‘Share The Red’), a cascading lullaby (‘Fall Away’) and a bit of old-school riffology (‘Spazz’, which does just that with a jumble of time-signatures atop each other) here. If there’s one criticism, it’s that no song rises above a canter, though that’s hardly a damning fault on such a patently well-crafted record.
The upshot is a slice of near-genius: tons of humour, wisdom and goddamn excellent guitar-playing across 15 tracks.
Last year did wonders for Pavement in the public eye. This album can make a legend of Malkmus. It’s no more than he deserves.