âFrontwardsâ â PAVEMENT
Stephen Malkmus summed up this early songâs appeal â as well as Pavementâs, more generally â when he told Newsweek, âThe Fall has been eradicated. Itâs a little more song-yâŚOasis could have used those chords, as far as Iâm concerned. Theyâre that good.â In other words, the band has sanded away just enough of their abstract edges to make something hummable, while still being weird enough to appeal to the kind of alienated slackers Malkmus considered his brethren.
The lyrics reinforce that feeling, with their jaundiced observations of late-70s Stockton, CA youth, and Malkmusâ insistence that heâs different: âIâve got style/miles and miles/so much style that itâs wasted.â
As choruses go, that one may not be as catchy as required to get on the same radio stations Oasis conquered, but itâs sharp enough to serve as a rallying cry for a generation of outsiders who donât mean to be smug â we just canât help it, sometimes.
