I haven't made up my mind on Real Emotional Trash yet. Malkmus has been moving in a more jammy direction since Pig Lib, but I do have to say I miss the catchy tunes and witty lyrics of Malkmus of old.

There's some good stuff here, but at times Malkmus seems to be putting more time into crafting trippy guitar solos than actual songcraft. "Elmo Delmo" wouldn't have even made it as a Pavement B-side 15 years ago, but here it's stretched into a painful, nearly 7-minute track.

Malkmus also doesn't seem to be interested in rocking out anymore. This album needs a "Summer Babe". Or even a "Baby C'mon".

Heard this for the first time tonight with the headphones and it's easily the most exciting thing I've heard this year. It's, well, rock n roll and the guitar solos are going to be really fun to get to know inside my head.

I've always thought that Malkmus was too self-conscious on record to really go for the solo. Live was a little different but he never seemed to just go all Doug Martsch in the way I wanted. This album sounds like a liberation for him.

LOOOOOVE this album In smallish doses of course.

I'm really warming up to this, to the point it might be the best thing I've heard in '08.

There as still a couple duds, but the middle section, "Cold Son" through "Gardenia", is really great. I really love all the twists and turns in the title track and "Baltimore".

It's really an album that takes some warming up to , and it's an album that begs to really be "listened" to.

I like the short songs on this, but the rest of it has me reaching for the skip button.

ADD.

Believe me, I have given this thing tons of listens and I love Pavement and some of his solo albums as much as the next guy.

Like MJ, the short songs really get me into it but some of the longer stuff is just too much, with the exception of the title track. That song is such a sweeping and great epic song.

I wish that he just fine-tuned it a bit. If it was a nice, lean album with just one long song, it’d be a masterpiece.

I find myself rather enjoying this album and its the first thing by Malkmus I've been able to enjoy (I've tried to like Pavement).

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
Believe me, I have given this thing tons of listens and I love Pavement and some of his solo albums as much as the next guy.

Like MJ, the short songs really get me into it but some of the longer stuff is just too much, with the exception of the title track. That song is such a sweeping and great epic song.

I wish that he just fine-tuned it a bit. If it was a nice, lean album with just one long song, it’d be a masterpiece.

i'm the same. It could be really good but it seems like he tried too hard, overdid it with those long numbers

quote:

Originally posted by brainofp:
It could be really good but it seems like he tried too hard

This must be the first time Malkmus has ever been accused of this.

I honestly couldn't say which of the four Malkmus solo albums I like best. I probably like them all equally. Like his other albums Real Emotional Trash is good without being quite as good as any of the pavement albums.

Bump. Just listened to this for maybe the second time yesterday and in a year already somewhat overcrowded with solid rock and rock-throwback albums, this still sounds unique and relevant to me. I don't usually listen to any radio of any kind, but a while back I was checking out the indie station on Sirius and they were playing the best two songs of the best ten albums of the year (all in in their opinion, of course) and they played two of the middle tracks off this album. After listening to the album again, those songs are indeed great, but the whole album is damn interesting really. I can see the angle P4k took with their review, but I think the review was ultimately too harsh. The year is virtually wrapping itself around this album, by virtue of it's forcing me to reconcile my "left-leaning" ear with the aformentioned traditional rock cornucopia. This one fairs very well up against Nick Cave, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Wolf Parade and even loose contemporaries Destroyer, The Dodos, British Sea Power, etc.