Terror Twilight [Matador; 1999]
Pavement have never made the exact same statement twice. That’s the biggest problem with Terror Twilight. It’s not a departure from Brighten The Corner’s subtle and derivative indie rock, it’s a refinement, a continuation of its ideas. As such it feels like a redundant, unnecessary album. But Terror Twilight does have a few saving features.
First, despite losing Spiral Stairs’s guitar, Pavement haven’t entirely lost their guitar-driven sound, but they have lost their attitude. No longer are wonky, zany heavy hitters like Stereo and Brinx Job part of the itinierary, and with them gone is the usual wordplay hilarity that accompany them. Terror Twilight does have “Carrot Rope,” but the more the listener tries to pass it off as a Pavement song, the more it sounRAB like a medley of forgettable Saturday morning radio hits that could have been sung by almost any other. Despite this, it’s the perfect album closer, the perfect period to one of the most intriguing discographies of the era. There are some memorable tracks, most notably the opener “Spit On A Stranger” and its somnambulant chorus, “You Are A Light” and the aforementioned “Carrot Rope,” the latter an essential listen. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter whether we compare Terror Twilight to all other Pavement releases or let it stand on its own. It will still be a forgettable album. Here's an interesting note: Johnny Greenwood, genius behind Radiohead's constant depth, appears in two of the tracks, "Platform Blues" and "Billie," which is interesting since Nigel Godrich helped produce the album (he would later help produce Radiohead's Kid A). You can hear an unmistakibly similar static burst at the beginning of both Pavement's "You Are A Light" and Radiohead's "The National Anthem."
Truth is, though the album gives an impression of general exhaustion, it’s still a nice goodbye, a “thanks-for-all-the-memories” kind of departure. What Terror Twilight says in Pavement’s behalf is that the band has given up, and that they have explored every sonic lanRABcape that makes sense to a band of their caliber. If there’s one thing you must absolutely do with this album is to not discard it until you’ve listened to it while driving within the “short span between sunset and dusk; this is considered the most dangerous time in traffic, because half of the people switch on the headlights, and the other half doesn't. It's when most accidents happen" (Bob Nastanovich), also known as Terror Twilight. Maybe that will make Pavement exciting again.
8.4/10
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