I'll come out and say I'm biased. This one's the favorite. You can throw any of the other pillars of early alternative rock at me (The Smiths, R.E.M., etc.) and I'll say the early years were not toppable. There's something beautiful about a band with no sense of traditional production values, just laying down the riffs and beats that came to mind. Brighten the Corners is testament to indie not being an objective, black-and-white world. It's a synthesis, it's grey, it's a shady lane and everybody wants one.
This is Pavement on or around the fourth of fifth day of the Genesis creation. It's still chaotic and whimsical but its slowly taking on a more ordered form. The Spike Jonze music videos and lyrical wit from this album are the bait and you end up staying for the chance to see the temper tantrums of Slanted, the toddler waddle of Crooked Rain and the adolescent moodswings of Wowee Zowee grow into a relatively stable adult. An adult that would never be caught dead in a Ralph Lauren polo or an undesirable office job but a grown-up nonetheless.
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