From All Music Guide: Recording Info: Foxtrot, Chicago, IL; Snowghost, Whitefish, MT

From All Music Guide: Stephen Malkmus' solo career seems to be settling into a pattern of alternating between skewed, spiky pop albums bearing his lone credit and long, languid collections of jams with the Jicks -- as 2005's Face the Truth belonged to the former category and its 2008 follow-up, Real Emotional Trash, fits neatly into the latter. That's not to say that this is a retread of the lazily intriguing, formless Pig Lib. Where Pig Lib wandered aimlessly, adrift on its insular guitars, Real Emotional Trash is focused and propulsive, even if the band invariably circles around a point instead of tackling it directly. Perhaps some of this precision is due to the presence of former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss as the Jicks' new anchor -- she grounds them and pushes them harder, giving Malkmus a solid foundation he's never quite had either in Pavement or on his own -- but Malkmus also sounds clear-headed here, as any new father of two should be. He's shed the haziness that plagued Pig Lib, yet he's s...

See All Critics' Reviews