\nWowee Zowee<\/i>, Pavement’s fourth album, arrived in 1995, a
\nvery interesting time for the band. Having built a cult following
\non the back of full-length debut
\nSlanted and Enchanted<\/i>, and even enjoyed some relative
\nmainstream success with hook-heavy
\nCrooked Rain, Crooked Rain<\/i>, the band with
\nWowee Zowee<\/i> presented perhaps its most artistically
\nsignificant offering. The album refuses to sit into one category,
\nand its often beautiful experimentation characterized Pavement’s
\nintention to remain as far from the mainstream as they could.
\nIndeed,
\nWowee Zowee<\/i> is perhaps not noted as Pavement’s best because
\nit cost them their growing trendy following, who, more often than
\nnot, latched onto the band following
\nCrooked Rain, Crooked Rain<\/i>‘s insanely catchy single “Cut
\nYour Hair.”<\/p>\n
It is no surprise, then, that
\nWowee Zowee<\/i> is starkly unique figure in the Pavement
\nback-catalogue, offering up slightly more with every repeat listen.
\nThe lyrics are typically obscure but often poignant, and delivered
\nin the motioning, careering manner that only Malkmus can offer.
\nPavement retain their distinctive style of sporadic guitar held
\ntogether by an understated rhythm section. The band jumps to and
\nfro among styles throughout the album,with delicate, downcast
\n“Grounded” typically followed by a frantic “Serpentine Pad,” which
\nis as heavy as the band had ever been.<\/p>\n
“Father To A Sister Of Thought” stands out as the album’s
\ngreatest moment, and, as such, was one of the few singles to emerge
\nfrom Pavement in the
\nWowee Zowee<\/i> era. As a psuedo-country styling, its slide
\nguitar warbling combines with Malkmus’ profound wordings to invoke
\nimages of cowboys with tears. “Grave Architecture” shows Pavement
\nat their lazy best whilst remaining to sound playful (and strangely
\nHawaiian in parts), “AT&T”‘s colourful and peculiar lyrics
\nremind of a
\nOne Foot In The Grave<\/i>-era Beck and “Flux = Rad” reminds us
\nthat Pavement could be both driving and erratic, and were, as such,
\na favorite band of one Kurt Cobain.<\/p>\n
\nWowee Zowee<\/i> is understandably cited as Pavement’s
\nexperimental album, relaying between the fierce and the fragile. It
\nis perhaps the most rewarding of all their albums, refusing to give
\nup certain aural treats and subtleties until a third or fourth
\nlisten. It has aged better than many albums of its era, and retains
\nand unerring sense of presence (especially aptly titled “Fight This
\nGeneration”). Its sound is more refined than earlier releases and
\nearthier than anything that followed. It doesn’t best showcase
\nPavement’s ability to be catchy and fun, but it does paint the
\npicture of their remarkable chemistry as a band. It sits perfectly
\nin an record collection, and is justly regarded as a masterpiece by
\nall true Pavement fans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":26376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6852],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37607","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pavement","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37607"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}