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Think of Quarantine the Past as a cousin to Hot Rocks or the Red and Blue Albums: it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, but as a primer, it’s hard to beat.
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It all clicks into gear by the end, and it perhaps bodes well that they appear to have worked out how to finish things on a high.
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Quarantine The Past: The Best of Pavement comes after a decade of constant re-releases, bonus discs and live albums, so it shouldn’t surprise that it comes off as a final, all-encompassing victory lap. Luckily the tracks chosen reach deep enough to make it at the very least a respectable ‘best of’ compilation.
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In other words, it’s exactly what a Pavement retrospective should be - a heavily slanted, palpably enchanted slab of richly flawed anarcho-pop.
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It’s a nice cross-section of material that highlights why Pavement was such a darling of the alt press, but Quarantine fails to truly capture the greatness.
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Diehards will lob all the complaints about sequencing and omissions, but if we're being honest here, what this compilation isn't leaves no blemish on the quality of what it actually is.
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MojoThe quality across this neat primer demands the high star rating. [Apr 2010, p.112]
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In short, Pavement's influence will continue to be felt for years to come, and this compilation admirably explains why.
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The ore of modern Pitchfork rock is here, laid out in all its flawed-diamond beauty. For a canon so flagrant in its faults, Quarantine is all-but faultless.
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The album contains some indisputable classics (Here, Summer Babe, Shady Lane) but aims to dig deeper than the hits.
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Mixing deathless classics (“Here,” “Gold Soundz,” “Range Life,”) with a few non-album gems (“Frontwards”), it’s a near-ideal primer on the savviest slacker-rock band ever.
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Quarantine the Past doesn't replace the albums, but it's a highly listenable alternative that is as much a treat for nostalgic older fans as it is a valuable gateway for new listeners.
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Q MagazineQuarantine The Past, a 23-track Best Of, blazes their reunion trail, working as either a tremendous primer for the uninitiated or a dizzying reminder of their remarkable abilities. [Apr 2010, p.124]
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UncutThis new 23-track compilation, cherry-picking the back catalogue from 1989's "Box Elder" through to 1999's "Terror Twilight," might help resolve the band's final enigma. [Apr 2010, p.102]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 22 out of 24
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Mixed: 0 out of 24
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Negative: 2 out of 24
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Jul 28, 2012
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Sep 3, 2019
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Oct 3, 2018