Pavement - Brighten The Corners

Just listening to this album again today and was curious why this album does not get more praise, a fantastically strong set of songs,really melodic guitar playing ( seriously listen to the last few minutes of Fin) and just a very easy record to listen to from start to finish.

Why do you think this album does not receive the kudos that Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain,Crooked Rain get? Is it that the lack of more eccentric material and more punk based tracks?

So let's hear your thoughts!

 

Think you might be your Pavement albums mixed up,this thread is about Brighten The Corners not Terror Twilight (although I agree that Terror Twilight is ok but nothing more)

 

Ack. Too early in the morning. Please feel free to delete my comment.

 

For me it’s simple: I don’t think the tunes are as strong as on their first three albums.

 

In brief: my favourite Pavement album. Strongest songs.

 

For me working through their catalog in the mid 2000s, it seemed a little too 'commercial' at first, compared to the prior LPs, but I have grown to appreciate it and have the 3 LP deluxe version (and enjoy some of the non-LP session tracks more than some of the LP tracks - Blue Hawaiian never did anything for me)

 

The b-sides were really strong as well,Harness Your Hopes and Winner Of The could have made the album.

 

my favorite pavement record. i feel all of their records minus TT get a lot of praise in general..... S&E CR,CR were the ones that broke them through. byt the time BTC came out, they already broke. and no one is going to praise a band that is simply consistently fantastic. it's just expected by then. I feel lyrically, this record is when Malk really started to up his game.
Crooked drastically changed my path of the music i listened to and for the better. Brighten simply sealed the deal

 

Love this record and the deluxe edition has some really great b-sides. For me - a fan since there first singles.. by Brighten the Corners some of my enthusiasm or rather attention had been diverted a bit to other bands and artists more likely because they were new, seemed more experimental, or aggressive.. and my attention also prized more local bands... but now years and years later I go back to Brighten the Corners more and appreciate that they had the songs and as a band sounded great together.

 

I also think it was because it was so different from Wowee Zowee, much more commerical. I liked it OK when it came out, but not as much as much as W.Z. The album (and Terror Twilight, which I disliked even more) have really grown on me over the past 20 years.

For me, Terror and Brighten could be two halves of a double album. They seem so similar.

 

wowee zowee getting a big 25th reissue over at matador as we speak

 

Got on board in the days when M.E.S. would refer to them as “rip-offs" or "bunch of copycats" but
lost interest in Pavement after "Wowee Zowee". Even though I couldn't really give you a reason. Probably because three years seem endless when you are young(er) and by 1997 I had moved on to other bands/ styles. When I came across a vinyl copy of "Brighten" in 2010 I couldn't resist. And was pleasantly suprised how much I liked it. A really good album.

 

On a side note,Wowee Zowee turned 25 today!

 

I was listening to this album the other day, and I had forgotten how much I liked it! Songs like “Type Slowly” and “Starlings of The Slipstream” are fantastic “nostalgic” Pavement tunes. This album also has Spiral Stairs best songs IMO. I think I can see why it wasn’t as well loved as some of their earlier stuff though. It’s pretty slick compared to the first three albums. Lots of mid tempo songs as well, and on some of them (“We Are Underused” and “Blue Hawaiian”) you can just sense Malkmus’s boredom with the group creeping in. Some of the tracks on Terror Twilight have more energy than these tunes. Still, I think it’s a wonderful record, and works best as a whole.

I think the Deluxe 2 Disc version of the album is the best in the entire reissue series. The BBC version of “The Hexx” and the live version of “Type Slowly” on the second disc are definitive. Some of the b-sides from this era would have really helped to bring the energy up on the record. How “Harness Your Hopes” missed the cut is beyond me.

 

At the time of release, yes seemed a commercial step compared with earlier albums, with which I was in love. But now the thing holds up. Really well. Just compare it to any other indie rock album released since and Let me know if there something better because I haven’t found anything.

I read at some point in my decades of Pavement fandom that after Wowee Zowee, Malkmus was writing absolutely every part on every instrument, not allowing anyone else to contribute creatively. He just told them their parts and played the role of music mastermind. I wonder a) if it’s true and b) if it explains why their sound is more polished and sort of less diverse and messy than previously.

 

Are you talking about the picture disc with just two bonus tracks?

 

Brighten The Corners is my favorite Pavement record...followed closely by Wowee Zowie.

 

As far as that kind of indie pop goes (and I would say on this album they moved toward that, and away from the slacker americana stuff of the previous 2 albums), I really like The Slow Wonder, the first AC Newman solo album. I think by and large it's tighter, more cohesive, far better played, catchier, etc than Brighten. But he/they are not Pavement, of course. I think Steve's first solo record is probably a little better than Brighten as well. As for why it's more polished- seems like Steve was comfortable moving into a more pop direction, and it's always surprised me that they never really had a hit.

I think if you look at Pavement as a see saw, with Scott's influence on one side (the early singles and Slanted) and Steve's on the other (Crooked Rain forward), that had definitely tilted quite toward Steve's sphere of influence by Brighten the Corners. He was definitely the main songwriting presence in the band, but he didn't write all the songs, and I doubt he was quite a dictator about even his songs. I think he probably had the most vision and knew what he wanted, though. I feel like the boredom is pretty apparent on this one and Terror Twilight. Neither album is 100% solid front to back for me (for that matter neither is Wowee Zowee, but it's really good) though there are some outstanding songs in these last couple years. Spit on a Stranger is extremely pop but a really incredible song I don't get tired of. Brighten the Corners was the first Pavement album I got, and I remember reading at the time that it had a conspicuously silly vibe not unlike, say Cake. It felt like they made a real effort on this one though. It sounds great, as does Terror Twilight.

 

picture disc and 25th re-release with nothing new

Pavement

 

There was a cable show here, forget the name, where Brix would stop people in the street and ask them what their favourite band was. Some guy said Pavement, she was not impressed

 

if you love pavement - this is for you

 

I like it...but it's got a lot of slower songs that make it seem more lethargic than it probably is.

"Starlings" is a slept-on classic, though.

 

It's probably their most consistent album insofar as having an overall sound and feel that makes for a cohesive listen (Embassy Row is maybe the outlier). When picked apart, some of the songs don't do so well on their own.

"Starlings In The Slipstream" is indeed one of their hidden gems and I think "Transport Is Arranged" is one of their very best songs. "A voice coach taught me to sing, she couldn't teach me to love" - challenge you not to smile at that line.

 

all the above.

my favorite song lyrically after harness your hopes. but i suppose they are awfully similar. which may be why Harness didn't make the cut.......

 

I posted this in another Pavement thread a while back. Fascinating:

Why Is An Obscure B-Side Pavement's Top Song On Spotify? It's Complicated.