šŸ’æ How Good Is It Really šŸ’æ Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Heaven is a Truck is really boring and drags the album down a little bit for me

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Just had a quick look on Genius at the lyrics and fuck me is some of the analysis on that site overblown.

I like ā€˜Heaven Is a Truckā€™, the whole second side of that record is more of a patchwork quilt than the first side.

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The opening few seconds just drain me of all energy immediately

Haha, it doesnā€™t have quite that effect on me but Heaven Is A Truck into Hit The Plane Down is def the album low point

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Donā€™t mind Hit the Plane Down really

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First album of theirs that I heard. Bought it on cassette for a quid. Despite hating cassettes have to say Pavement on tape sounds great.

My favourite of theirs followed by Brighten the Corners and then Slanted and Enchanted. Donā€™t like Wowee Zowee all that much to be honest. Donā€™t think the songs fit together all that well. And it goes on for too long.

Came out on my 25th birthday, Valentineā€™s Day 1994.

Bought it in Steveā€™s Sounds in Soho and I can remember listening to it on headphones later that night, hearing the stumbling beauty of Silence Kid for the first time.

Itā€™s a great record, easily a 9 - probably have to dock a point for HtPD.

Pavement were my favourite band around this time, on record and live. When I eventually moved to Norwich and formed a new band I discovered that all three of us had been at that final Brixton show and for a while we were determined that any new member would need to have been there too. Never worked out that way.


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I remember being a bit disappointed by the album version of The Hexx when TT came out. Iā€™d been listening to this version for a while by then.

Wow, I hate that :smiley:

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Letā€™s get married.

I think a polished up version is on the BTC extender.

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Is that because of Range Life? :grin:

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This^

I like the SS ones too.

Best two releases are S&E and Watery, Domestic. This is obvious.

CR CR and Wowee Zowee and BTC next, order changes as I listen to them but again obviously Grounded is their best song ever, isnā€™t it. Terror Twilight at the end.

I used to love Westingā€¦ but I need to be in that ramshackle, half a song, early Sebadoh albums vibe to appreciate it now.

Happened to be listening to wowee zowee (up to kennel district to be specific ā€¦ One of their more straight forward tunes but what a tune indeed)ā€¦
Crooked rain is very close to a 10 ā€¦many good memories attached to it too of festivals in the sun and great gigsā€¦
Iā€™d go

  1. slanted enchanted (10 - preferably the reissue so westing and sundry b sides and early tracks are included)
  2. crooked rain (very high 9)
  3. wowee zowee (very high 9 and almost nothing in it between this and crooked rain)
  4. Brighten the corners (strong 8)
    5( Terror twilight (high 7)
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Terror Twilight is my favourite, itā€™s very cosy.

Iā€™m a bit old for their poser indie wry attitude these days, prefer more honest music.

Still, Crooked Rain is a good 8/10

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I think itā€™s a very good album and probably their best one just ahead of Slanted & Enchanted.

Went with Fillmore Jive as the best song, Iā€™m baffled by its low spot in the poll. Love how big it feels and the way it kind of hangs there erupting and how it has a sort of underlying sadness despite not taking itself too seriously. Itā€™s a classic album closer.

Range Life is a GREAT song which makes it all the more bizarre that he randomly dedicated the last verse to taking a shot at another artist. But I wonā€™t hold it against him, he was probably lied to by a third party (and itā€™s not like he doubled down with a book 25 years later where he acts like an elitist high schooler). Other than that verse, itā€™s them at their best. Something about the placement of some of the key lyrics makes it feel like the song has a linear narrative even though itā€™s all pretty impressionistic, itā€™s kind of neat how he accomplishes that.

I donā€™t mind Hit the Plane Down at all, itā€™s almost like a necessary break in the album to set up Fillmore Jive (kind of like Half / Like Suicide on Superunknown or And Ever / The Battle of Hampton Roads on The Monitor). The weakest song is probably Heaven Is a Truck, but itā€™s totally fine. The albumā€™s pacing through Range Life is really good.

Iā€™d never heard the album until the middle of last decade when my now-wife made me borrow her copy after one of our very first dates (what could I have possibly been talking about to prompt her to do that). Maybe the only album not by 311 that reminds me of actual good memories.

No idea how to score it. It really is a good album, but itā€™s not a Siamese Dream / Lift Your Skinny Fists / Didnā€™t It Rain level masterpiece. Which is totally fine of course, not everything has to be or can be, and not many albums are. Maybe the best way to put it is that itā€™s higher than an 8 but somehow considerably lower than a 7.64.

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Always loved this:
Out on my skateboard the night is just humming
And the gumsmacks are the pulse Iā€™ll follow
If my walkman fades
Well, I got absolutely no one
No one but myself to blame

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^ should be a more popular opinion, S&E is their best work.

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i didnā€™t work my way back to it for quite a long time for some reason.

Wowee Zowee was my intro to them via a uni friendā€™s CD collection, thought it was all over the place but with some good bits. then got Crooked Rain which was a bit more consistent and i liked most of it but never loved all of it really. then Brighten the Corners which i decided was their best and most enjoyable and i enjoyed the slight contrarianism of touting that as their best. then eventually made it back to Slanted and it turned out this was the album that sounded like i had always wanted them to sound.

(listened to Terror Twilight a bit later on and itā€™s fine.)

Itā€™s quite fun working backwards through an artistā€™s catalogue. S&E is just really cohesive and has most of my favourite Pavement songs.

Also, I love this aberration:

Which is on a par with Wugazi.