Pavement - Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement Album Review

Do Pavement need an introduction? It's hard to say. If you grew up the '90s, with your canvas bag slung down by your knees, trudging to school with a wide-open copy of Melody Maker blocking your view of the oncoming traffic, shouting "I'm just a boy with a new haircut" across the classroom and saving your lunch money to buy a limited "7 of 'Rattled by the Rush' then. I guess not.

For those of you whose past life had a different scriptwriter, then, Pavement are kinda the kings of lo-fi. Cooler than Nirvana, with less depressing fans; more fun than Dinosaur Jr. and braver than Britpop. Stephen Malkmus is the lord of the lyric that means nothing and everything. Hippy nonsense with deceitful insight. Guitars that clatter and clang with seeming abandon.

Never one for retrospectives, best-ofs or other cash cows; I do not need to switch my brain to genius mode to figure out that Quarantine the Past would not be right here, right now, were it not for Pavement's first (and supposedly last, but never trust the words of the musician who has yet to receive the pay-cheque) gigs for 10 years, scheduled in 2010. Personally, I find this neither surprising, nor exciting. They're all at it. There are more bands of that era reforming than not, these days, though at least the reformed Pavement will actually contain more than one member of Pavement (Yes, Courtney, I am pointing at YOU).

Quarantine the Past is a solid dose of fun; no weak tracks, no filler. But the way I remember it, most Pavement albums were like that anyway. They should have just re-released the albums, with deluxe packaging and a lock of Malkmus' hair. And it doesn't even have 'Rattled by the Rush' on it.

Do some research. Buy the albums, This isn't even half the story. Like reading Catcher in the Rye with half the pages torn out.


Hayley Avron