The Krautrock bubble baths and noodly swordplay of Sparkle Hard are comfort food with an expert crunch, with big thematic swings (“Bike Lane” is a winsomely awkward tribute to Freddie Gray) and winking in-jokes aplenty (Kim Gordon drops by for “Refute,” a scruffy country ballad about triumphant infidelity). Guitars! Distortion! Mumbled profundities! Arduously casual beauty! Pavement’s reign as the smirking philosopher jesters of ’90s indie rock lasted just five albums, with a feeble late decline, but the solo-ish crew led by once-extra-smirky frontman Stephen Malkmus is now seven records deep and only getting better, and warmer, and jammier.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Sparkle Hard (“I picked a good day for a recreational Percocet,” begins an exhausted, unfathomably raw ode to motherhood called “Best Years of My Life.”) The most romantic, and most devastating, song is called “Masterpiece”: “Baby we were just a country song / I’m still doin’ time, the King is gone / I tried to stand by my man / We were making plans, we were making plans.” And God laughs, but even through tears so do they, and so will you. Interstate Gospel is raucous and joyful even at its most scathing, with triumphant anthems about divorce (“Got My Name Changed Back”) and crushing ballads about the wonders of parenting. “Jesus is the bread of life / Without him, you’re toast,” begins the very funny and quite alarming third record from the country-royalty trio of Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley, and Ashley Monroe, three of the best singers and songwriters in Nashville, and for the terrible and obvious reason three of the most disrespected. But he’s never been all three of those things for as long as he was on White Bronco, which includes not only a darling hat tip to gangster movies, but also a part of a song where all he does is yell as loud as he can. Bronson has obviously been good before, and charming before, and clever before (you can watch the “Baby Blue” video for a glimpse of him being all three of those things at the same time). Sometimes that’s all I really want from music. And feel good, both about the world in general and about myself specifically. I laughed when Action Bronson said you could find him at the bottom of Lake Titicaca watching Euro Cup. I laughed when Action Bronson said that women keep calling him Taye Diggs. Second, let me say: I laughed when Action Bronson said that his haircut was Dominican folk art. įirst, let me say: If you want to slide Travis Scott’s beautiful Astroworld album into this spot, then you absolutely can. 1 album and the state of music in 2018, read Rob’s companion essay. Rob Harvilla and Shea Serrano have combined forces to count down the year’s best albums, including a few top-of-the-chart smashes and a few unexpected curveballs that are all worthy of revisiting.
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