Real Emotional Trash
The most aesthetically cohesive album of Stephen Malkmus' career, Real Emotional Trash is also his jammiest-- an unabashedly rock'n'roll band album unafraid to stretch its songs past the 10-minute mark.
For the bulk of his post-Pavement career, Stephen Malkmus has embraced the lazy spaces laid out in extendo-rock jams, so much so that questions have arisen as to whether his words or the jams themselves are the real cause of his songs. That was never the case with Pavement, a band with limited musical chops and lots…
Stephen Malkmus' solo career seems to be settling into a pattern of alternating between skewed, spiky pop albums bearing his lone credit and long, languid collections of jams with the Jicks -- as 2005's Face the Truth belonged to the former category and its 2008 follow-up, Real Emotional Trash, fits neatly into the latter.
The real strength of the album is the strength of every Malkmus project: He’s an indefatigably charming frontman.
Thick swaths of amplified electric guitar kick off Stephen Malkmus' fourth post-Pavement album (the second credited to the Jicks), a flashpot smoking,...
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash review: Malkmus hasn't missed a beat.