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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Real Emotional Trash
by Stephen Malkmus
The former Pavement singer returns with his latest album with the Jicks.
| LABEL: |
Matador |
| RELEASE DATE: |
04 March 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Alternative |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Filter
The seasoned professional executes discipline on a record that seems entirely natural--layered to the top, but never giving in to excess. [Winter 2008, p.92]
90
All Music Guide
It's an album meant to be discovered and lived with, revealing its jokes and its beauty over time.
90
Rolling Stone
All he [Malkmus] wants to do is surrender to the lightheaded rush of the music, and the results are downright glorious.
85
Lost At Sea
How does it compare to his previous three records--or eight, if you count his former band? Suffice it to say that's a rhetorical question. If Joe DiMaggio made albums... well you get the point.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Real Emotional Trash features lots of long songs with prog parts ripe for '70s Camaro rides, but Malkmus' apparent glee in playing them helps keep excess at bay.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Even as he skewers fakery with surprising directness, the husband and father remains largely at a feline remove himself. [14 Mar 2008, p.75]
80
Under The Radar
On Real Emotional Trash, Malkmus and the Jicks' most recent offering, they manage to bring both tendencies (to indulge in classic rock and play loose) together into a coherent whole without getting too polished or boring. [Spring 2008, p.83]
80
Mojo
Real Emotional Trash conjures a virtuoso meld of folk rock, prog and cosmic blues tropes, all filtered through the ex-pavement frontman's tradmark arch surrealism. [Apr 2008, p. 101]
80
Boston Globe
Real Emotional Trash isn't "Slanted and Enchanted" or "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," but hey, you can't have a perfect sound forever. Besides, there are more than enough old-school indie touches here to flash you back to the halcyon daze of '94, or give you an idea what your older sis had on her headphones.
80
Hartford Courant
Some connect better than others, and the album feels a little front-loaded, but it's still a treat to hear Malkmus get in touch with his inner guitar hero.
80
Sputnikmusic
Real Emotional Trash is a simultaneously funny and interesting record, shaped with just the right kind of meticulous care to strengthen its band-jam aesthetics.
80
Uncut
It is, in short, a hippy record, and a very good one.
80
Slant Magazine
The joy of listening to Malkmus's songs has always been the involvement the listener takes in separating the "truth" from the "spoof" (much like with other oddball geniuses like Robyn Hitchcock or Tom Waits). There's plenty of both here, but more importantly, there's enough interplay between the two to keep things interesting and delightful.
80
The New York Times
The album is both a generous, transparent body pleasure and a flinty, oblique mind pleasure.
80
Drowned In Sound
Polished production and an ironing out of the music’s creases creates a less-relaxed feel than we’re used to hearing, but there’s also a sense of warmth which was largely missing from the previous Jicks-aided album, "Pig Lib."
80
Blender
It’s a very rare, wondrous thing: prog-rock for firesides and fuzzy-slipper Sundays.
80
The Phoenix
Real Emotional Trash, with its long, winding guitar solos, extended jams, and emphasis on shifting psychedelic guitar textures, is as retro an album as Malkmus has ever recorded.
80
Village Voice
With Malkmus, a spade is never a spade, and his usual counterinclinations set Trash aquake with tension: pop that's coy but direct but rambling but surreal.
80
Amazon.com
Trash's capriciousness and experimental willingness are what gave Malkmus an audience in the first place--and what promise to keep it coming back for more.
75
Prefix Magazine
For the most part, the album succeeds insofar as it either builds upon Malkmus's perennial themes or allows itself to indulge in experimentation.
73
cokemachineglow
The Jicks do an incredible job of coming into their own as a band, channeling Malkmus’s sarcasm and foolery in a less controlled setting brilliantly; they just can’t, because of the immediacy of the album, tease out the full quirkyness.
70
Tiny Mix Tapes
Even when the album gets really flaccid, as in the clattering breakdown of the turgid story-song 'Hopscotch Willie,' Malkmus is still annoyingly good at writing stuck-in-your-dome-piece melodies that keep you humming the tunes you don’t like just as much as the highlights
70
The Wire
With the Jicks now sharing the spotlight, sees Malkmus's familiar tangled lyricism and meandering tendencies offset by some tremendous group performances. [Mar 2008, p.57]
70
Billboard
Janet Weiss adds welcome flavor on drums and vocals, but overall, how much you enjoy rummaging through this Trash will probably depend on the amount of patience you have for the Malkmus' indulgences.
68
Pitchfork
Real Emotional Trash is determinedly unified, even if it isn't always clear to what ends. At its best, the record hints at opening a whole new musical world for Malkmus--one in which his well-worn style is effectively played down in the service of a mighty rock'n'roll band.
60
The Guardian
There is so much going on - veiled lyrics, abrupt key changes - that it would take months of patient unravelling for the 10 tracks to fully reveal themselves.
60
Delusions of Adequacy
There is just too much hit and miss on this album.
60
Observer Music Monthly
Here Malkmus dispenses with the electronic curiosities that blighted his 2005 solo album Face the Truth and adopts a more polished version of the old indie-rock of soaring guitar solos and oblique lyrics.
60
NOW Magazine
Real is a beefy record that plods and dances precariously close to the jam band divider.
60
PopMatters
If Real Emotional Trash falls short of "Pig Lib," it’s because we’re spending too much time in the tunnel, and not enough in the funnel to the tune.
60
Dusted Magazine
Like Stephin Merritt, his East Coast cognate, Malkmus’ songwriting chops and eye for upper-middle-class detail are too-available excuses for music that is often unremarkable.
60
musicOMH.com
Real Emotional Trash fails--beautifully and melodically, yes, but it fails nonetheless.
60
Paste Magazine
With Real Emotional Trash, he proves he can retain both, leaving behind the controlled one-man-band environment of 2005’s Face the Truth and issuing his most eclectic and unpredictable album yet.
60
Spin
Trash has its moments. [Mar 2008, p.106]
40
Q Magazine
His fourth album is another trough, low on songs and over-reliant on meandering guitar jams. [Apr 2008, p.112]
The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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