Sparkle Hard

The experimentation keeps things interesting and is a rare and welcome sight for a musician in his fifties, but it’s the songs that aim for summer afternoon in the suburbs of “Gold Soundz” or “Range Life” that are his forte and the album’s best.

The end result is likely the most dynamic and entertaining Jicks record thus far. You can hear Malkmus's love of classic and kraut rock in these crafty arrangements, which each get to a place where they truly shine. Hard.

Malkmus may still stand on the outside smirking, poaching different elements of the underground and mainstream, assembling them in a fashion that's undeniably unique, but the craft and cleverness of Sparkle Hard can't disguise the simple fact that he means this music, man.

Fortunately, Sparkle Hard lives up to the hype. It is warm and approachable, filled with punchy songs, adventurous arrangements, a few admirable experiments and enough memorable moments to demand repeat plays. This is a top-tier Jicks album, alongside 2003’s Pig Lib, 2001’s self-titled effort, and 2011’s Mirror Traffic.

Sparkle Hard continues this unfeasibly strong run he’s been on and adds a little more bang for your buck.

Sparkle Hard is Malkmus at his most compelling: balancing his experimental whims while revealing pieces of his arcane heart.

Sparkle Hard is at once his most sonically adventurous and structurally tight set of music in over a decade and easily stands among his most rewarding work with the Jicks.

The album, produced by Chris Funk of the Decemberists, manages to be both weird and relevant, experimental and comfortable. Malkmus’s grounded surrealism makes for a series of songs that offer connection within a skewed take on life. The music, in any track’s given mode, encourages persistent resistance of the way things are without being heavy-handed. It bridges worlds wonderfully and shows Malkmus to be as vital as ever.

‘Bike Lane’ doesn’t quite strike the balance, and as such isn’t a highlight, nor is ‘Shiggy’. But they’re done so wryly, so knowingly, that it’s not a big deal and they don’t detract much from what is an assuredly sparkly album.

Sparkle Hard is the kind of quirky and realized record made by an artist with nothing to prove.

As if to underline his status as one of indie rock’s great eccentrics, Malkmus makes a decent fist of orchestral pop on the frisky, staccato-like Brethren, and severs all ties with conventional songwriting, revealing an aptitude for space rock (Difficulties/Let Them Eat Vowels).

Like the Fall or Captain Beefheart, Malkmus’s use of language is idiosyncratic (“numbskull chip off some old block, dagger glasses for the kid” anybody?) but demands immersion, while--at 51--his musical gifts are as bountiful as ever.

Where Malkmus’ solo work has sometimes walked the fine line between too detached or too self-satisfied, the record cartwheels over it with the assurance of an artist who’s correctly assumed that so long as he’s enjoying himself enough, others will too.

What sparkles most about this new album is the comfort you feel when Malkmus and his band do exactly what you expect.

When this album is good it’s superb--probably the Jicks’ finest yet; and when it’s less so--less focused, more haphazard and wilfully out-there--it’s still pretty damn great as well.

Sparkle Hard slips out of twisting plot traps as nonchalantly as it slides around rigid logic. The characteristics that have kept his music with the Jicks since the early 2000s one of indie rock's more subtle but steady pleasures haven't faded in the least, and Sparkle Hard finds them at their brightest concentration.

Sparkle Hard comfortably fits in alongside any of the other entries in his oeuvre, but it also feels like a more mature release. He’s mostly let go of the overt references to The Fall and Dadaist poetry that defined Pavement’s early material. Instead, he delivers the prettiest album of his recent career, one that still rocks but does so in a relaxed, contemplative manner.

As well as blending linguistic elegance and musical levity, Sparkle Hard affirms Stephen Malkmus's increasingly contemplative approach. [Jun 2018, p.94]

It’s all executed with the same kind of effortless charm that’s characterised Malkmus’ entire career.

There's a richness here that's been absent from previous Jicks records. [Jul 2018, p.115]

Despite ts sometimes laidback nature, Sparkle Hard also bristles with an energy that proves he's got a place in the present, and a new accessibility that compromises none of his eccentricities. [Jun 2018, p.18]

Sparkle Hard remains an entirely worthwhile pursuit that resides within the upper echelon of Malkmus’ post-Pavement output. The way he experiments and progresses his sound is admirable, and it has resulted in some must-hear moments on this very record.

Malkmus doesn't display his wry humor as much as usual on Sparkle Hard (though "Refute," a country duet with Kim Gordon, is a hilarious portrait of Portlandian romantic intrigue). But the album still manages to generate a unique empathy for the world and those enduring it around him.