Slanted And Enchanted

This album should automatically start playing every time someone refers to anything like Coldplay or The Killers or Kings of Leon as “Indie”. Yes I’m gatekeeping genres. Dont judge me. You’re a hipster too. That’s why you’re on this website.

One of the greatest albums of all time. Effortlessly cool, impossibly catchy, and rocks harder than its slacker reputation suggests. Arguably THE defining indie rock record, yet it doesn’t feel like homework to listen to. It’s still a total blast!

Overall I liked the sound and feel of this record listened whilst on a run and was enough energy in it to motivate me forward.

Riktigt dåligt. Påminner om Broder Daniel på engelska fast sämre. Vissa låtar kan vara ok, men överlag inget att lyssna på.

Foundational indie rock

fine but not anything i got excited about

Love this album and everything they’ve done. Stephen Malkmus delivers this slightly shakey band with such hooks.

If you don't like Pavement, it's your own asphalt

Right, Pavement. You had to figure these guys were coming up on this list eventually with the way people act about them. I don't know. Vocal delivery like Malkmus's only really works for me when it's in service of something truly *weird* a la Wowee Zowee; I've found most of the rest of Pavement's stuff to be a bit... too much like they're just doing a whiny bad half-assed job at producing a bunch of proper pop songs. Which, sure, okay, I get what they're going for with the "slacker aesthetic," et cetera, I just personally find it kind of annoying. Like, why NOT try just a little harder, you know. Are you too cool for it. Are you too cool to actually hit the notes. @Malkmus are you That said. Hm... I listened to this album a bunch of times in a row yesterday trying to give it its fair shake, and it *was* kind of growing on me by the end. There are moments, for sure. A couple of tracks, perhaps. I do find Our Singer genuinely compelling. I can see what the people who love it are talking about. Out of respect for its influence if nothing else I will give it the third star

i enjoyed it and found a bunch of them catchy, but nothing that i think i’d be dying to hear again. but i could also see it growing on me and i liked it more than other pavement i’ve heard. *Fav tracks: Jackals, False Trails: The Lonesome Era*

Enjoyable enough, might return to this when in the mood for 90s grunge Playlist add: “Summer Babe - Winter Version”

Premium slacker rock that entices and wets the appetite for Crooked Rain.

Enjoyed this, I hadn’t heard their music before.3.1

The peak of whatever you want to call this type of music is.

Average at their best.

Amazing build-up nearly every song. Amazing storytelling, and the guitar on songs like fame throwa, oh my life. Fame throwa might be one of my fav songs from the 90s I don’t see why some people don’t like this All in all 94/100

I saw that this album was described as being lo-fi, so I was curious to see how lo-fi it was. This album is not lo-fi. sure, some songs are slower than others, but over all it is a pretty heavy sounding album, with loud guitars and screaming vocals, and I'm not sure what's so lo-fi about that. Besides that, the album does sound good, and it's clear how this influenced indie bands to come, but just not what I was expecting when I saw "lo-fi" in the album's styles section. Not going to let that draw back from what is clearly a good album, however. 8.5/10

idk i can't really explain why i like this . weird but the songs are good so yeah that's that

I wanted to like this but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

A couple of songs were ok including the opener, but it seems like this really isn't my thing.

Source code! This is really such a solid framework for modern indie music. Its Fugazi, its Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Its Joy Division. Its almost Nirvana? And maybe even the Meat Puppets. Whatever it is, its fantastic. And I love it. Its kind of that perfect bridge from punk to indie.

Lovely.

Listens: 3 Standout Tracks: In The Mouth A Desert, Conduit For Sale!, Here, Fame Throwa Seemingly no influence on or from Modest Mouse (at least any links on Wikipedia), but I can't help but hear the similarities on some of the more melodic tracks. In The Mouse A Desert, Conduit For Sale! and Here, all sound like they could be intros to Modest Mouse songs. Issac Brock doesnt quite approach the same level of screaming as Stephen Malkmus, but I think there's a quality there that makes the bands quite related. As far as I'm concerned, these considerations are positive, and part of the draw to Pavement, for me. This is proper indie/alternative rock long before the indie revival in the 2000s and 2010s.

⭐+ Altrock. Skramlig, brötig ljudbild utan riktiga låtar de 39 minutrarna känns mycket längre. Kan höra att de kan ha inspirerat senare band men det hjälper inte, kommer inte lyssna igen, får bli en stark 1a. Bäst är Trigger cut/wounded kite, Two states, Perfume-V

For me it feels like this album wants to be deeper then it really is.. unfortunately it is quite bland, just some basic instrumental with some mediocre vocals 2/5

Having done a dive into their stuff previously, I think this was the album of theirs I liked the best, certainly the one that felt most jagged and interesting. I don’t think I ever got around to properly ranking them though because, you know, slacker…

A group I particularly dislike - how I detest out of tune instruments. Yeah, yeah, it's meant to sound that way, but to me it the result sounds awful.

I’ve found that indie rock albums all fall into only a few different sound categories and there’s not that much difference within each category This album has that same indie rock sound and some songs here do it really good and some are jus okay This album starts pretty strong and just loses its way towards the end This album could also benefit from some production stuff The vocals are just super quiet on a lot of these songs Pretty solid album overall but I can’t say it’s higher than a 3 or 3.5

The OG indie coming at you with sleaze perfection.

good album this was recommended to me by a salesperson in a CD/Record store back in about 1999 at the time they were calling it slacker pop or rock I just liked the vibe of the album I can just put it on and chill out, hearing it after all these years I still enjoy it

Hmm

Neither

Good, but ultimately forgettable, sorry Pavement your biggest legacy will always be a b-side that blew up on Spotify ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Way more post-punk The Fall inspired than I realised, very very much quintessential early 90s slacker-indie (not quiiiite grunge) that I enjoy very much.

I can see why this made the list, but that doesn't mean I have to like it

#254 - With an album held in such regard, after listening one and a half times, I feel like this might grow on me more than it has. I rushed listening to it on my way to see my kids. I think it deserves another listen to see what I missed, so Ill give it another shot before giving a full review. So far nothing jumps out as good or bad which is weird for me.

Not my favorite album by Pavement, but great still. Favorite tracks: Summer Babe (Winter Version), In The Mouth A Desert, Zurich Is Stained

Sometimes, I feel like we describe albums as life changing or transcendent without really knowing what those words truly mean. This album is by no means either. It’s an adolescent (at best) effort to push the boundaries of punk and indie while staying firmly in between the lines. What we’re left with is an album that sounds like Bob Dylan decided to forget how to play music and sing.

This album didn't do much for me. The song Here is pretty good, but the rest fell pretty flat.

This one is quite an influential album and a foundation of slacker rock and this era of indie rock as a whole. While this isn’t a sound I typically gravitate towards I do respect it and the significant role this band played. With this record, it remained consistently interesting throughout, but it still started alot stronger than it finished, in my opinion. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: Summer Babe, In The Mouth A Desert 1 listen Favorite Tracks:

A sort of messy garage rock sound. Not something that appeals to me. DNF

they sure recorded sounds

I'm into this even though I think it sounds a little same-y. I like that you can hear a bunch of little kernels of this or that sound or style that would sprout elsewhere. Wish the mix was a little better. Sounded very tinny in my car :(

WHITE BOY INDIE TIME RARARARAGH this makes me feel feral it makes me want to cause property damage and harm myself and others. I’m only barely glancingly familiar with Pavement but I’m gonna go listen to more now. It rocks so hard when the music and singing intentionally sound a little half-assed and shitty, yum yum yum yum buzzy buzzy Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Here”

This..is...bad? Like just objectively. He can't sing or rhyme and it's not even clever or interesting. The sounds like when you try to date the kid with a garage band in highschool and he makes you listen to his band and even as a 16 year old you can tell he's not going anywhere. I forced myself through 3 songs and I'm gonna go back and listen to the who.

I can recognize this album is good but it’s not my cup of tea, that’s usually an earl grey and this is more of a hibiscus

neat little album, I put it on while I was working and kind of forgot that it was playing for the most part so it didn't have a huge effect on me, not really my usual kind of music but maybe I would have liked this more had I paid more attention, I can see that there are some elements in here that I would usually like but it just wasn't really hitting today. 3 stars because I should probably relisten to it. Likelihood that the members of this band lezzed out IMO: 4/5 they look waifish and loving in their spotify images and their music feels experimental in a way where I feel like they were also experimenting with each other. Next!

yayyyyy first time listen, more familiar with pavements later & more polished albums but what an impressive first album, i feel like they came out swinging releasing this after only 2 weeks of rehearsing and recording i love how shitty the drums sound fame throwa ???? is this jazz? trigger cut, conduit for sale are bangers i wish i could shotgun that dirty filthy disgusting guitar tone like a beer i love when it is clear that a band has a bunch of great players and you can tell through the music but they are making a conscious choice to not take themselves too seriously and make music that is silly and fun. that rules

Nice background pub music. At least earlier in the day.

Best Pavement album. Not too noisy and very well produced.

Early noise (emo?) rock with hints of grunge sprinkled throughout. The rough guitar tone stands out tremendously from the very beginning, and the guitar solos consistently stand out. The song titles are pretty bizarre, and intentionally so. I guess Captain Beefheart really left his mark. At several points I wondered what Pavement is really going for on Slanted & Enchanted. The lyrics seem to alternate between goofy/thoughtless and fairly intricate stuff with political tinges. Summer Babe starts us off bright and guitarish. The singer very much mimics Lou Reed in its mild deadpan-ness. But the production is clearly a little higher budget than the Velvet Underground had access to. The appended “Winter Version” in the title befuddles me, particularly when the “original” version is nowhere to be found. We move swiftly onward (the songs are short) to Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17 (yes, that’s the title) where we get what appears to be a Beach Boy cameo. As in, one of the Beach Boys. There’s no harmonising, but I swear I can hear at least one Wilson brother at any given time. Great fast drumming and lighthearted energy. But Pavement are plenty capable of rage, too, as seen in the song No Life Singed Her. At a heart-stopping 2:08 runtime, the track smells of punk. (It has a funk of punk. A punk funk.) But unlike most of the punk genre, the musicians actually sound pretty competent at their respective instruments. I do feel the main vocalist – the Reed-sounding one – gets a little too laissez-faire in the song In The Mouth A Desert. At least the more melodic guitar sections slap one’s ears senseless. Conduit For Sale! contains the poetic lyric “I’m tryin” (x16) a couple of times over. Zürich Is Stained is underwhelming, forgettable and a clear candidate for “side 1 stinker” – though Chesley’s Little Wrists gives it a run for its money with off-tune wailing and miscellaneous electric guitar “shreds”. Moving to side 2, Loretta’s Scars returns us to normalcy, if you can call it that. Loud, not-quite-abrasive distorted guitar is front and centre in the mix, with the vocals taking a backseat. Again the solo is a clear highlight, and I wonder if Pavement realises this. Good punchy ending. Next, a rare introspective ballad from these guys in the song Here. I immediately like it, particularly in the context of the rest of the album. (Reminds me of Riot Van’s role in the Arctic Monkeys’ debut record.) Lengthwise, it also stands at an ambitious 3:58. We dive straight back into the catchy classic-ish rock from the first track with Two States. Perfume-V sounds (nominally) like the worst flavour of energy drink, but the song is decent. Though it does blend into the haze of some of the earlier punkish tracks. In Fame Throwa we finally see the influence from the prog rock revolution. I hear a good bit of Rush in both the synths and the constant tempo changes. Very cool. Jackals has exactly one line (“I’ve got, one holy life to give”) and Pavement certainly get their money’s worth from it. Plenty of noise to overwhelm the ear here. We end with Our Singer, a more understated but still plenty active piece with a 6/8 rhythm. 3/5 Key tracks: Here, Two States, Fame Throwa

Cool vibe, no really great songs but overall a good listen

RATING: 7/10 HIGHLIGHT: Zurich is Stained LOWLIGHT: Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era

Three-leaning-four

Some of it I really like, some of it is crap. So a 3 seems fair.

This one is really uninteresting. Didn't I like them at some point? There was definitely better music happening in 1992.

very very very of its time, kind of drags a bit, but a good enough listen to make the "occasional streaming" list

Heard this album a fair few times before - a bit hit and miss here and there, but Here, Zurich, and In the Mouth.. firm favourites

Ok

Oh I have not heard this in forever but I remember it well. I subjected a number of friends to this and it wasn’t well received. A select few were interested and we thought it was “college rock” but I liked it. Upon re-listening Two states is a good song. I like the album crooked rain better. Fun fact my friend Whits older sister house sat for Steven Malkmus. I think Whit was the person who introduced me to Pavement in Highschool.

All songs are ruined by the singing

That 90's indie lo fi alternative rock sound. You can hear so many artists in here. Dinosaur jnr, the pixies, sonic youth, Nirvana, Weezer, Hum and many others. I think if I'd heard this in 1992 I'd have loved it. As it is it's a good album and it may grow more on me but it's not as good a piece of music as the aforementioned have released.

"I'm trying, I'm trying" the vocalist repeats, as he (and the second vocalist) then puts minimal effort into singing. The lyrics sound like the whole album was written in half an hour. Initially sounded like an interesting album with hints of The Pixies and The Strokes, then it leaned into grunge then far more into slacker. Elements of punk as well but slacker is prevalent. "Zurich is Stained" and "Here" are my personal preferences in the album.

Vroeger grijs gedraaid. Heerlijke combinatie van rommelig en strak

Meh

Big no for me. Not sure why or when I would ever listen to this.

There were parts where I thought it was decent and others where I thought it sounded like a garage band that was still looking for someone who could sing.

I love Pavement. Haven't listened to this whole album and really like it. Summer Babe and Here. The rest of the songs have a great sound/vibe. Their slacker rock is just a cool sound.

Too lame

Never really understood pavement; they’re firmly in the “I’m about 5 years too young for this to have been important” to me. I know they inspired a ton of other bands but the halfway between grunge and alt and punk was never for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly fine, but Malkmus’s cadence drives me nuts and the rest sounds like an unremarkable garage band. I don’t dislike it, but I also don’t care for it. Bang middle of the road album.

More chill version of sonic youth…and that’s a good thing

Highlight: Summer Babe- Winter Version A well produced debut. Balanced mixing to my ears. All about the noise, not the lyrics. A mix of Sonic Youth, Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. Overall: 5/10

Guy Can't sing. And that's being nice!

3*

Quite enjoyed that, not familiar with the band but heard about them. 4/5

The Good: We are getting enchanted! The Bad: Not enjoying the slanted... The Ugly: Hitting the pavement slanted... I didn't like the other Pavement album either... To think that there are so many other indie bands which could've been included and aren't... or just nice albums which could've been included but aren't... Guess I am just going to have to suck it up, realize that there are probably going to be at least another 100 bad albums I will need to listen to... Oh, just so you don't have to worry, all sharp objects have been removed from my house! 2*

Really good slacker rock/indie rock album with a unique sound. The guitar tone, the singing style and the production is so shit yet it fits so well togheter. Its great. The singing style kinda reminds me of Lou Reed talk singing thing. I imagine this was very influencial for the time. Im very happy to have discovered this album by this book thats cool.

It was fine! Just not my taste exactly. I see why some people love their music but just wish there was more memorable tunes. It's a sparse sound and I don't love the vocals. But I'm not opposed to listening again.

Really great album, full of Indie Joy, sounds like? Mazzy Star, anyway loved it, track 1🤞🏼

Meh this wasn’t anything special to me.

Sounds like an opening act. Yes, it's listenable and suits the style of the head liner but really nothing special.

Never got into these guys even though it’s the exact genre and era that I “should” love - a sort of post hardcore 90s alternative rock. It’s okay when sounding like Pixies or The Fall, but otherwise the singing is really off putting and the word I always think of when I listen to Pavement is “dumb”.

Sorry, only got half way through this. Quite simply, there is only so much shit you put up with on a Sunday morning and after Morrissey and Pantera, this was just too much.

I’m not sure how this passed me by. It’s right up my street. Love the drawling vocal style, the reverb, the guitar solos and the songwriting. Very Dinosaur Jr in places. Highlights: Summer Babe, Here and Jackals…

Scars States etc.. With the arival of this debut album, there was a new face in hell in the shape of Pavement. I remember playing 'Summer Babe' to death when this came out, it was the sound of the summer that year. It is probably the most accessible song on the album, but once you get past that, you get a great art threat of an album. I do wonder if Stephen Malkmus' inspiration came from his older lover. It is a banging ramshackle belter of an album done in a style few can pull off successfully. I listened to the middle mass of the album in the park and just had to smile, before returning to the neighbourhood of, yes I'm sure you can guess. Actually I played it twice in a row which is rare for an album on this list. It is a gem of a lo-fi record. But by the last song I had to check the record, check the record check Steven Malkmus' track record, turns out he is unappreciated by MES.

To paraphrase Beavis & Butt-Head, try harder.

Hadn't realized that David Berman's backing band put out albums too! Pavement are a band that I never found the time, or found them at the right time for. But really enjoyed this.

Classic Gen X slop. They’re too cool to care how the album sounds.

not really special in any particular way through my first listening experience. solid (3.0/5.0)

422/1089 this was decent, idk it wasn’t groundbreaking (to me) and isn’t a genre i care for a whole lot but it was a good one-time listen faves: conduit for sale, zurich is stained, jackals 57/100

OK, mid 90s college station rock.

I'm sure there is talent in here somewhere, I just couldn't find it. This was not fun to listen to.

Not a fan. Could not quite indetstand or grasp the purpose. Did not enjoy listening and would not do again.

Not as bad as I was expecting, but I can still take it or leave it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Seattle 90’s vibe.

Listening to this felt like hanging out with that one idiot stoner friend who every now and then will randomly and seemingly accidentally say the most heartbreakingly poignant thing you’ve ever heard.

ned so schlimm wie anderi wo sochli metal oder ka was au immer gsi send. aber trotzdem ned wök en bericherig gsi. 2 wöll mini ohre ned weh toh hend bem lose und wöll eis vo 18 oder so easy gsi esch, aber ned nice gnueg zum speichere

Fairly uninteresting, not a huge fan of the vocals being a bland talk more than singing.

I want to like Pavement but they've never quite done it for me. There are things I do really like about this album, but I think it's a bit too rough around the edges to really pull me in.

Nice. Pavement. I've never listened to these guys before, though I'm aware that they were a covertly influential act in 90s rock music. I've also seen this album around both on the web and in the book, so I think it stands to reason that this is in here on good authority. If I'm to take a swing at a more specific genre for this album, I'm expecting it to be an alt rock release. Here goes. This is an indie rock album, but I was more or less there with my prediction, right? This rough, garage rock-y sound has spelled disaster for many-an-album before, which is why I'm surprised by how unbothered I am by this album. Dare I say, I didn't mind it at all. It does that annoying thing where it bloats the track list with a bunch of one minute songs and some of the music is too reminiscent of Pixies for my liking, but all in all I enjoyed my experience of listening to this album. The vocals are well-performed, if a little poorly mixed. The guitar riffs were mastered well and were generally competent, and I'm always one for the growling bass guitars which underpin many of these songs. The songwriting can be a little shaky, though there are moments where it lands quite nicely. All in all, I appreciated listening to a lo-fi, garage rock-esque album which knew how to fill out its songs without become a discordant, sludgy mess. For that reason, this album gets a big thumbs-uppy from me. Book time. "If Nirvana had opened the doors for alternative bands to achieve mainstream success in 1992, Pavement seemed determined to shy away from it - to little avail." Very influential within indie rock circles. The drummer on this album used to give out cabbages at their live shows before he was kicked from the band a year after the release of this album. That's amusing. After a week of rehearsals, Slanted and Enchanted was recorded over a week at a garage studio on a budget of $800. The entry closes out by calling this album "...a perfect record." Wikipedia verifies that this album is a landmark release in indie rock. The album was also adapted into a musical and is beloved by critics, with it widely being considered one of the best and most influential indie rock albums of the 90s. The album peaked at No. 178 in Australia and No. 72 in the UK. Yeah, how could I deny this album? It has a hell of a lot going for it. I cosign this inclusion.