‘Mirror Traffic’ clicks for the Jicks

With his first album of this decade, Stephen Malkmus enters his fourth decade of making aloof and jangly indie rock.

“Mirror Traffic,” on its surface, contains the shortest tracks ever on a Jicks album and the most on a Malkmus album since Pavement’s “Wowee Zowee” in 1995. This is a notable departure from his last album, the Jicks’ jam-laden “Real Emotional Trash,” but it’s not the only one longtime Malkmus fans might notice.

On “Mirror Traffic,” Malkmus seems to prioritize consistency for perhaps the first time in his career. Even his most well-received albums, especially those from the ’90s, had their spots of deliberate sloppiness, but no song goes unpolished here.

Give some credit to his producer, fellow SoCal apathy-rocker Beck, for his restrained oversight. It allows Malkmus’ melodies to speak for themselves while nurturing the band’s excellent instrumental codas and breakdowns (especially on “Forever 28” and “Gorgeous Georgie”), which build beautifully without spiraling into jams.

Another well-established aspect of Malkmus’ songwriting brand he ditches on this album is his signature non-sequiturs. In fact, he probably makes more sense here than ever before. (See the chorus of timely lead single “Senator,” released earlier this year amidst the public shamings of multiple prominent political figures involved in sex scandals: “I know what the senator wants/What the senator wants is a blow job.”)

Malkmus is far removed from the starry-eyed, attention-deficit-disorder boy identity of his prime, but “Mirror Traffic” proves, if nothing else, that he still can’t sit still on ideas.