No. 43 Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Part of my 50 greatest albums of all time.

There is a common misconception that a man in his 40’s who grew up listening to alternative music must be a Pavement fan.

Now while I do like a bit of Pavement, and I’ve seen the live twice, I was never that into them. I remember first seeing them on an Irish kids tv show called Jo Maxi, playing Cut Your Hair, which was odd. But it didn’t inspire me to check them out.

It was after Uni when I discovered them properly. I had an acid casualty flatmate, who for the life of me I can’t remember his name. But one day he was playing some song loudly and I just had to knock on his door and ask him who it was. Pavement he said and I asked to borrow tape from him at some point. I fell in love with it pretty quickly.

I feel I’m not going to win any indie points with this choice. Crooked Rain is the obvious pick from the band’s discography, but I’m not in any way apologetic for it. This is as popular as it is for a reason, this is Pavement at their most catchy and accessible. As I say. No indie points for me here.

I’ve always been a little too intense, musically at least, for Pavement’s slacker vibe but there was just something about that post Uni few months that this album perfectly encapsulates for me. 

There’s a great big elephant in the room with this album and that’s Cut Your Hair. This single has 90’s novelty song written all over it, and for most people it’s probably the only Pavement song they’d know. But it’s still great. I love how it’s such a snotty put down of the music industry in such a jaunty song. I’m sure it should get old, but it never has.

Gold Soundz is one of the greatest jangly indie songs of all time, while Range Life’s country tinged charm would probably still be Pavement’s best song even without the pot shots at the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots 

Fillmore Jive is probably the highlight of the album for me though. It perfectly encapsulates the slacker vibe over the album’s longest song. 

Starting with its woozy guitar, the song stumbles around, like it’s looking for clarity.  The “I need to sleep, why don’t you let me?” line used to rattle around my head when I’d be finishing night shifts. The dissonance of the guitars just feels like when my brain just isn’t working properly because it’s 8 in the morning and I’m slouching home from work and everything is terrible. The song is great though. It’s second act pivot to a commentary of the various music 90’s scenes is unexpected but I love the line “and the dance faction? A little too loose for me” It was always a bit silly but made me smile.

Despite all my sniffy ideas about Pavement, this is a classic album for a reason. It’s peak 90’s slacker for better or worse and I don’t think anyone would have it any other way.

https://songwhip.com/pavement/crooked-rain-crooked-rain