Stephen Malkmus - and The Jicks - Pig Lib Album Review

The former main man of seminal college rock heroes Pavement is back with a follow up to his critically acclaimed eponymous solo debut album. This time to emphasise the communal endeavour, the additional post-Pavement musicians are not hidden on the liner notes, but get equal billing as The Jicks.
Stephen Malkmus is such a constantly inventive songwriter that almost inevitably his new release will be hit and miss. Pig Lib certainly lives up to this expectation. There is an enormous amount to admire on the album because, when Malkmus reins in his more excessive experimentation he creates songs of wonderfully absurd melancholia.
Standout track 'Vanessa From Queens' begins with the lyric 'There is aggression in the air this morning / Got your tights around my head / In a samurai pose on the bed'. The surreal lyrics are delicately sung with a Robert Smith flourish over the kind of deceptively simple melody that characterises the best Badly Drawn Boy tune. The same template is used just as impressively on 'Animal Midnight' and 'Ramp Of Death' where acid rock guitar inflections complement rather than overwhelm the songs.

The best exponents of Malkmus' patented brand of lo-fi rock, like Sparklehorse and Grandaddy, contort and partially mask the tunes that infuse their music, but however disguised the melody remains central to the song. Frustratingly on much of Pig Lib