Secret Meeting review: 87
by Philip Moss and Joseph Purcell
As we edge towards the half way point of 2018, it’s fair to say that thus far it’s very much been the year of the singer/songwriter. Yes, artists both new – Snail Mail, Stella Donnelly – and the already established – Laura Veirs, Grouper, Phil Elverum and Ezra Furman – have returned with exceptional new music and to continue this trend, we welcome back ex-Pavement frontman, Stephen Malkmus.
But the build up to this release wasn’t all plain sailing. In November, Malkmus appeared unannounced as a support act at a show at Portland’s Institute for Contemporary Art and, in karaoke style, sang a new album’s worth of electronic based material with his laptop programmed as a backing track. However, when the record (Groove Denied) was presented to his longterm label, Matador Records, their founder, Chris Lombardi, rejected it. As Malkmus told The Washington Post – ‘They didn’t want to put it out, or they thought it was dumb to put it out first because it was a head-scratcher. Maybe some of my more traditional fans that know Pavement would scratch their heads.’
Joined by his compadres, The Jicks – as he has been since 2001 – the record that did get accepted by Lombardi was Sparkle Hard. Beginning with Cast Off, a gentle piano opens one of 2018’s standout records so far. Continuing from 2014’s Wig Out at Jagbags, the record finds Malkmus addressing social and political issues, while dabbling with autotune and collaborating with Kim Gordon for the first time since 1999’s Sonic Youth side-project Kim’s Bedroom.
Now Sparkle Hard is not an immediate record either, and due to its eclectic nature it doesn’t present the easiest of first listens. But there’s something extremely moreish about it. One of the early standouts is Solid Silk. A beautiful serenade that falls somewhere between Elliot Smith and The Shins, and showcases Malkmus’ talent for writing glorious off-kilter pop music. Complemented by glorious sweeping strings, his unmistakeable voice take centre stage and – excuse the pun – it sparkles.
The thudding krautrock stomp of Bike Lane provides Malkmus with a platform to tackle the issue of police brutality. Telling the story of the death of Freddie Gray (a boy who, whilst in custody with the Baltimore Police Department) died a week after suffering significant injuries akin to those seen in a car crash after being handcuffed and placed into the back of a police van. Significant Black Lives Matter protests ignited in Baltimore and across the US after this incident, and here we see Malkmus, as politically engaged as he has ever been, taking aim with lyrics that pull no punches- ‘The cops, the cops that killed Freddie, sweet young Freddie Gray, got behind him with the truncheons and choked the life right out of him. His life expectancy was max 25, go, Freddie go!’ Malkmus uses Bike Lane to highlight the contrasting issues of Middle America, calling to question the validity of priorities that occupy people’s thoughts in white suburbia.
The centrepiece of the album, Middle America, is quite simply peak Stephen Malkmus. With charming, understated delivery, this is a spacious, mid-tempo slab of MOR, and has the hallmarks of all Malkmus’ finest moments over the last three decades. With his take on the #metoo movement, Malkmus sings- ‘Men are scum, I won’t deny… crush me back to were I belong’.
The tasteful production work from The Decemberists’ Chris Funk must also not go unmentioned. Rattler, surprisingly, finds Malkmus experimenting with autotune as, over a three minute burst of guitars, he sounds remarkably like he’s in some futuristic underwater space. The scuzzy wall of sound on Shiggy emphasises the record’s eclectic nature. Gone is the experimentation and back come the pounding drums, driving bass and razor-sharp guitars as Malkmus effuses -‘Come from the underground, throw me right back where I belong. I got no time for this, whenever forever’ – which you could perhaps read as a a tongue in cheek dig at the label who rejected his more experimental tendencies. While joined by Kim Gordon, Refute floats by on a country inspired riff and sees the talents that helped inspire two of the nineties most influential bands combine brilliantly, and simply leaves you desperately hoping these two will combine again – hopefully on a full record – together.
So as much as it would be great to see how far Stephen Malkmus could push the envelope of his songwriting with a more electronic-based record, one cannot deny Lombardi’s ear when he deemed this record worthy of release. Sparkle Hard really does do exactly what its title suggests.
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