Pavement: Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement

Music Reviews
Pavement: Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement

Old, gold soundz

Quarantine The Past is a quintessential Pavement title—cryptically self-skewering and cagily ironic. Back in the ‘90s, the quintet made guitars sound like ambivalent shrugs and bratty convulsions, and wore their thwarted ambition like a badge of honor. Listen to any current band that recasts classic rock as a shambling, sensitive, brainy thing and you’ll see Pavement’s influence. This retrospective won’t do much for fans with a clear memory of the last decade of the 20th century, but it’s ideal for youngsters who want to get acquainted with their favorite band’s favorite band without wading through gigabytes of ephemera. 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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