Malkmus' "Truth" a solid release

In his first two post-Pavement solo albums — the eponymous debut and Pig Lib — Stephen Malkmus proved remarkable confidence in his abilities. Now, with Face the Truth, the Pavement-pioneer-gone-solo manages to stretch his frontier in yet another unadventurous album, one that this time aches with nostalgia for a coming-of-age Pavement record that never was. Face the Truth is by no means a Pavement rip-off, but solo Malkmus remains the same spirited, fast-witted singer/songwriter after all these years, even if he doesn't achieve the same cult following as Pavement.\nStephen Malkmus' conflict is with people complaining that the smirking, non-sequitur know-it-all is good, but he doesn't measure up to his old band. Is he merely a 1990's leftover, or a noise-rock architect? So far, he neither redevelops his sound nor does he fall into the trap of parodying himself. Instead, he and his backing band the Jicks succeed at folding his instant recipe into finely grown, middle-of-the-road indie-rock.\nThat said, Face the Truth is nothing that couldn't have been expected, though the work more openly nourishes Malkmus' furiously A.D.D. Pavement tendencies. Malkmus squeezes enough angst into the whirring-though-structured "Pencil Rot" as to generate, for lack of a better comparison, Rivers Cuomo-esque whiney psychological resonance. The third track, "I've Hardly Been," is set to a spooky oompa-loompa strum that disjointedly heaves the listener into "Freeze the Saints," which lures us into the pseudo-carefree ode to languishing.\nThe album's second half is Malkmus' most enjoyable string of songs in years. "Kindling for the Master" is white-boy blues-funk, with low-fi Americana grooves as hip and retarded as Napolean Dynamite posing as Beck. "Post-Paint Boy" is the album's fantastically catchy single.\nHis solo stint isn't Lennon's post-Beatles Imagine, but needless to say, he puts Paul's solo career to shame. In short, this album kicks asphalt!