Real Emotional Trash

The quirky stoners on the fringes of grunge in the ’90s like Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr and Stephen Malkmus’s Pavement were capable of frequent greatness, but it was often hard to escape a sense of them being slightly self-defeating. Like characters in Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith films, it felt as if they had too much time to think about the absurdity of life and rock music, creating an air of bemused detachment that could veer dangerously close to insincerity. Over the years, though, these “Gen X” musicians became more comfortable with their place in rock history. So on this 2008 album, though Malkmus’s voice retains a nervy nerdiness, and though there are occasional awkward sudden left-turns in song structure, the fuzz riffs and satisfyingly earthy guitar soloing suggest he is truly enjoying playing Great American Rock without pondering on whether it’s “OK” to do so.