Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Template:For Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the second studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released on February 14, 1994 by Matador Records. The album saw the band move on towards a more accessible rock sound than that of their more lo-fi debut Slanted and Enchanted and achieve moderate success with the single "Cut Your Hair". The album also saw original drummer Gary Young replaced by Steve West. It was a UK Top 20 hit upon release, although it was not so successful in the US charts.

Music and lyrics

The music on Crooked Rain has been characterized as "graft[ing] a shadow history of ’60s and ’70s California folk-rock and psychedelia onto the abrasive, Fall-inspired noise of their previous sound." According to Elizabath Nelson of Pitchfork, the album's tracks "are alternately sparkling and insinuating, mournful and ominous and finally cathartic, variously evoking the desert swoon of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the swaggering two-guitar overdrive of Buffalo Springfield, and the eerie chill of jazz pioneer Dave Brubeck."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote, "Crooked Rain strips away the hiss and fog of [Slanted], removing some of Pavement's mystery yet retaining their fractured sound and spirit. It's filled with loose ends and ragged transitions, but compared to the fuzzy, dense Slanted, Crooked Rain is direct and immediately engaging." The album makes use of guitar feedback, as well as fuzz and wah guitar effects. The album contains elements of pop music. The album also incorporates elements of country rock, making use of cowbells. Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times said, "the players frame Malkmus’ vocals with music of constant invention, from soft meditations to full-out fireworks. Sometimes it’s so relaxed it nearly stops, then it’s suddenly taut and jumpy." The music has drawn comparisons to the "loopiness" of the Meat Puppets and the country folk of the Rolling Stones and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Cromelin also noted the presence of "a chirpy pop tunefulness" on the album, though not without what he said was "enough contrary abrasiveness to keep you from getting too comfortable with them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Lyrically, NME described the album's tracks as "New York stories about coming to terms with the city and its excesses, about finding yourself in a world of drug-addled rock piggery and platitude-slinging fools and still, somehow, keeping archly calm.”<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> According to Jim DeRogatis, writing for Chicago Sun-Times, the album's lyrics "are less important than the way Pavement uses catchy vocal harmonies to establish different moods."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Release and promotion

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was released on February 14, 1994, by Matador Records.<ref name="Matador Pavement">Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2009, the album had sold about 500,000 copies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, Matador released Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins, a compilation containing the album in its entirety, as well outtakes and other rarities from the same era.<ref name="Desert Origins">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Critical reception

Template:Music ratings

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Crooked Rain a perfect five-star rating, describing it as "the Reckoning to Slanted & EnchantedTemplate:'s Murmur." He concluded that the album was "a vibrant, dynamic, emotionally resonant album that stands as a touchstone of underground rock in the '90s and one of the great albums of its decade."<ref name=allmusic/> Robert Christgau of the Village Voice gave the album an A grade, describing it as "a tour de force melodywise."<ref name=christgau/> Entertainment WeeklyTemplate:'s David Browne gave the album a B+, writing that "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is just a bunch of guys dwelling on topics like skateboarding, plane crashes, girls, and mocking Stone Temple Pilots. When they set those sentiments to bumpy-road drones or a bit of a country lilt...the result has a subtle, ingratiating beauty."<ref name=ew/> Los Angeles Times critic Richard Cromelin gave the album 3.5 out of 4 stars. Cromelin wrote that the album contains "some of the Meat Puppets' loopiness, a Stones/Burritos folk-country resonance, and a chirpy pop tunefulness — along with enough contrary abrasiveness to keep you from getting too comfortable with them."<ref name=cromelin/>

Legacy

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain has been called "the quintessential slacker rock album."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003, the album was ranked number 210 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 212 in a 2012 revised list.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the 2020 update of the list, the album's rank dropped to number 434.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It was also ranked number 10 on their best albums of the Nineties.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2003, it was ranked number 8 on PitchforkTemplate:'s list Top 100 Albums of the 1990s,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 2010, the song "Gold Soundz" was listed as number one on PitchforkTemplate:'s 200 Greatest Songs of the 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 2014, Guitar World ranked Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain at number 21 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The photo in the middle of the cover was taken from the March 1978 issue of National Geographic. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was included in the 2014 reference book Gimme Indie Rock by music journalist Andrew Earles. He wrote: "The pre-release hype and hoopla for this album was like a somewhat smaller-scale version of the anticipatory climate that awaited Nirvana's In Utero."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote: "Many bands attempted to replicate the sound or the vibe of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, but they never came close to the quicksilver shifts in music and emotion that give this album such lasting appeal. [...] By drawing on so many different influences, Pavement discovered its own distinctive voice as a band on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, creating a vibrant, dynamic, emotionally resonant album that stands as a touchstone of underground rock in the '90s and one of the great albums of its decade."<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Track listing

Original 1994 Version

Template:Track listing

Notes

Template:Reflist