The Hard Quartet
The Hard Quartet
★★★★
MATADOR
Perhaps not what Malkmus watchers might’ve requested post-2022’s auspicious Pavement reunion, The Hard Quartet is still a highly desirable proposition: an extravagantly skilled four-man team that knows every angle on rock music-making, here shoehorning it all into 15 electrifying in-the-moment compositions. Superficially, it may be the most Pavement-y record their singer’s been involved with since 1999’s valedictory Terror Twilight, yet on closer inspection it’s not even Malkmus singing on seemingly characteristic lopes like Rio’s Song (that one’s sometime Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy cohort Matt Sweeney).
Also outstanding here is Ty Segall sideman Emmett Kelly’s two entries (mid-’60s Byrdsian gem Our Hometown Boy; deconstructed desert-blues North Of The Border). With Malkmus on the mic, Six Deaf Rats stretches out across six mesmerisingly edge-of-collapse minutes, its labyrinthine improv expertly steered by drummer Jim White, while gambolling opener Chrome Mess and twisty-turning Action For Military Boys also score top marks. A delectable-sounding record slathered in guitar magic: what’s not to like?
The Hard Quartet is out now on Matador.
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Tracklisting:
Chrome Mess
Earth Hater
Rio's Song
Our Hometown Boy
Renegade
Heel Highway
Killed By Death
Hey
It Suits You
Six Deaf Rats
Action For Military Boys
Jacked Existence
North Of The BorderThug Dynasty
Gripping The Riptide
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Picture: Atiba Jefferson