#terror twilight

Kids these days, even ones who love Pavement records, may not fully get from those records that Pavement were of sufficient subcultural prominence that critics would accuse them of making records designed to shrink their fanbase. In that light you can imagine how bringing in Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and making a record in a big fancy studio that pretty much sounds like it was made in a big fancy studio went over. The common thread between ‘obtuse’ earlier records and this ‘sellout’ one, as noted in the interviews included in Farewell Horizontal, was that the band was just trying to make the best Pavement record they could at the time, and with a little historical distance that’s just what the original Terror Twilight sounds like. Part of the fun is hearing Godrich’s relatively polished sheen applied to songs that would have fit in just fine on Brighten the Corners; whatever similarities there are, it’s still like Pavement with a different accent. Stephen Malkmus had done impressive guitar-guy stuff before but “The Hexx” (a career highlight, sounding much better here than in the half-baked version they essayed and then shelved for the previous record) and “Cream of Gold” just dig in and blast the doors off in a way the band had never really managed before. The two songs added late enough that most of the band didn’t even play on them, “Major Leagues” and “Carrot Rope,” do make for a lovelier ballad and goofier pop move than Malkmus had previously attempted, but it’s a difference of degree, not quality. And the more off-kilter stuff like “Platform Blues” and “Speak, See, Remember” arguably benefits the most from the studio treatment.  

So while there’s a notable tendency, both then and now, to look at records like this and treat them like the outside force (producer or otherwise) is somehow subverting the band, this wasn’t a case where Godrich or any particular aesthetic concerns were forced on Pavement. As Bob Nastanovich says in the round-table interview he, Mark Ibold, and Steve West give in the booklet here, “I can understand this preoccupation with worrying about Nigel being in control, and worrying about it not really sounding like a Pavement record, but then again we also didn’t want it to sound like the other Pavement records.” People in bands generally know what they’ve done before and how people expect them to sound, and often when there’s a change, it’s on purpose. That interview and the other similar material here (additional comments from Godrich, a separate essay by Spiral Stairs, and a 1999 interview with Malkmus) might actually be the biggest benefit to checking out the reissue. The context is fascinating and everyone concerned seems pretty at peace with the record they made and how everything, including the at-the-time end of the band, went down.  

Notably, nobody else in Pavement seems to have any reluctance to acknowledge (or bad feelings towards) the fact that Pavement was essentially Stephen Malkmus’s band. Terror Twilight may have been the first time he showed up with detailed demos, which perversely may have added to the frustration of the stop-and-start process of switching studios and trying to get the rest of the band comfortable with the songs, and it’s the only Pavement album without Spiral Stairs songs, but based on the information here it feels like these are relatively slight adjustments from how they usually worked. Those demos and other early versions make up the bulk of the time on Farewell Horizontal and they’re pretty par for the course for that kind of material; interesting enough to hear if you’re familiar with the album, but not the sort of thing most listeners will need to return to often.  

The other material fares a little better; the few offcuts are fine (although it’s hard not to be curious what they would have sounded given the full Godrich, particularly the two Spiral Stairs tracks), and the live tracks are fun (especially the album-closing, raucous cover of CCR’s “Sinister Purpose”). One of the most high profile and possibly contentious additions is both only on the vinyl issue of Farewell Horizontal and not really any new material: the long-discussed original running order for Terror Twilight, set by Godrich before Spiral Stairs came up with the version actually released in 1999.  

It’s hard to control for the familiarity of anyone who picked up the album when it came out when trying to figure out which sequencing is ‘better’, but while Godrich does a good job in the booklet of explaining his thinking (sequencing the relatively challenging combo of “Platform Blues” and “The Hexx” as an intro, and keeping most of the thornier material for side A), the release version does feel more cohesive by virtue of not trying to split up different types of material, and Spiral Stairs did make what still feels like some really good choices when it comes to the places where Terror Twilight still needs to change direction (“Cream of Gold” into “Major Leagues” and “The Hexx” into “Carrot Rope” in particular). There’s also the addition in Godrich’s version of the just over a minute instrumental “Shagbag,” which isn’t particularly offensive (and in fact the little intros and linking bits he’s added to songs here are generally pretty successful) but also doesn’t add much. Issuing the deluxe version of Terror Twilight like this, committing to neither sequence, speaks to the difficulties and awkwardness around the albums creation and reception and the end of Pavement’s original run in general. But, whatever a given listener’s quibbles or preferences around the two versions of the album, there’s another thing that points to a core truth about Terror Twilight: both versions still ultimately sound pretty damn good.