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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
There's a great twelve-song album in these eighteen tracks
Depending on who you talk to, Wowee Zowee is either one of Pavement's greatest masterstrokes, or a bastard child they sent down the river to their unsuspecting fans. Personally, I'd balk at the idea of labeling it at all, since the album's deliberate obliqueness almost defies categorization. Taken purely as a musical artifact to be dusted off and examined though, Wowee...
Published on January 16, 2001 by Devon Reed
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Okley Dokley
Hearing this seminal 90's indie rock band at their most unhinged can be both a blessing and a curse, as many outstanding fragments can fade into a general haze of academic debauchery.
Published 6 months ago by IRate
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
There's a great twelve-song album in these eighteen tracks, January 16, 2001
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
Depending on who you talk to, Wowee Zowee is either one of Pavement's greatest masterstrokes, or a bastard child they sent down the river to their unsuspecting fans. Personally, I'd balk at the idea of labeling it at all, since the album's deliberate obliqueness almost defies categorization. Taken purely as a musical artifact to be dusted off and examined though, Wowee Zowee stands as the purest testament to the warped kaleidoscope of Steven Malkmus' mind. If the previous albums were showcases for Malkmus' peerless ability to ransack the past and mold his own vision from the spoils, then Wowee Zowee simply makes the thievery a little less veiled. For while the album sports its share of true Pavement songs, especially in the near flawless first half, they feel overshadowed by the genre experiments and song fragments which punctuate the album's eighteen-song length. Despite this disjointed nature, with epics like "Rattled By The Rush" and "Fight This Generation" standing among the pedal steel beauty of "Father To A Sister Of Thought," the Stereolab drone of "Half A Canyon," and the punk burst of "Serpentine Pad," the album doesn't really feel like a mess. That's probably because Pavement wisely pared most of the experiments down to the two-minute mark and let the fully-formed works shine a little longer (the exceptions to each rule being "Half A Canyon" and "Black Out," respectively). As for the song order, I'm not sure if any thought at all went into the album's sequence, though at the same time I'm not sure I could have done any better. After all, the drunken hilarity of "Brinx Job" seems just as good as any other song to bridge the carefully considered works on either side, when one considers that even some of the individual songs on the album (like "Grave Architecture") are in and of themselves cases of conflicting identities. There are some who see this as Pavement's most deliberately anti-pop album, and listening to a live recording of a pre-Wowee Zowee concert, I became acutely aware of the straightforward work it could have been. Gems like "Black Out," "Grounded" (Malkmus' ode to his doctor and his collection of German automobiles) and an instrumental "Brinx Job", when removed from the clutter of unimpressive tracks like "Flux=Rad" and "Western Homes", show that Malkmus indeed had the goods to deliver an album cut from the cloth of its predecessor, the landmark Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. On top of all that, you've got Scott Kannberg's best Pavement song ("Kennel District"), the soaring guitar work of "Pueblo," and the perfect absurdity of "AT&T." So maybe this was supposed to be Malkmus' retreat from the spotlight, but like say, Nirvana's In Utero, Wowee Zowee ultimately proves that Pavement can hardly even try to make an alienating beast of their music. In the end, Wowee Zowee is the least immediately accessible work of Pavement's discography, and consequentially one deserving of repeated listens. Somewhere in the chaos of these eighteen tracks is a great twelve-song album, and the joy of the record is finding it. At the end of "Black Out," Malkmus wonders aloud, "Up on the trail high/I need to know/Where does it go/How do I get there/And what will I find?" The winding path of Wowee Zowee may not reveal itself immediately, but it's well worth the journey.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
the best pavement album- works on every level, October 7, 2000
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
When people talk about pavement they tend to "apologize" for the band's excesses (e.g. serpentine pad, brinx job) by referring to it as fun, ironic posturing. that's true to a certain extent, but if there wasn't a lot of genuine emotion behind those songs, they'd wear thin after a few listens, and you'd only tolerate it if you were in a jokey mood. What I've come to realize is that on this album, pavement attains possibly its greatest depth of emotion of all their albums. "Brighten the corners" may have catchier melodies (open to debate, but quite possible), but as one reviewer said, it wears a little thin on repeated listenings-- the reason, I think, is that the emotion isn't as genuine: it comes across as a forced sort of irony that isn't always convincing. In contrast, some of the songs on WZ will sound really weird the first time you hear them, but give the album a lot of listens and I think you'll notice: the lyrics begin to make sense in oblique, stream-of-consciousness ways, the angst, annoyance, anger, frustration, (joy?) etc. of malkmus & co start to come out quite convincingly and you begin to get that empathic connection with the music that's really quite rare. That's a lot of typing to have to read, but suffice it to say: this album is spectacularly, uniquely moving and works well on a bunch of emotional levels. plus it's fun to listen to and it'll satisfy that "indier-than-thou" craving we all get from time to time. :)
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Solid gold soundz, November 13, 2004
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
For whatever subconscious reason we sometimes revisit music we haven't listened to in years, I've been going back through a Pavement phase lately.
The other day I was sitting around trying to make a mix of their songs for myself. I threw my favorite odities off the singles on there, four from "Crooked Rain," and then I listened to "Wowie" for the first time in years just to kind of refresh my memory of the songs I liked the most. And it occurred to me: I like all of these songs. You got 18 numbers, they're all weird, they're all full of hooks and weird sounds -- pretty great and I ended up loading more than half of the record onto my mix.
"Wowie" doesn't have the Maiden Voyage cache of "Slanted," nor is it The Breakthrough of "Crooked Rain." And it may be too diverse and smart for its own good but, damn, if it doesn't kick it. Underappreciated but bountiful in its rewards.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Can't go wrong with Pavement, October 31, 2003
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
Pretty much every thing in the Pavement cannon is worth owning. I remember this album came out and all of my friend's including myself felt like it was a huge disappointment. Well I remember a few weeks later wondering if it was such a disappointment then how come I'm listening to it all the time? I can't recall ever having an album creep up on me and blowing me away like this one did. It turns out all of my friends were on the same page because we spent the entire summer of '94 playing this one. This album is sort of a fractured, eclectic split of pop, avante garde, and rock with tongue in cheek humor. The songs scream, twist, laugh, cry, and often self destruct. The guitar solo on Rattle By The Rush starts out sounding like Jimmy Page, and ends with the notes coming off in demolished pieces. It's the classic Pavement twist- the catchy pop song with something off putting or silly, but still the juxtaposition comes off brilliantly. I've never heard of a band take so many wild chances and land on their feet as well. The disappointment that really happened the time this album came out was the lack of interest this band got on that joke of a tour Lollapalooza put on by that Schmuck Perry Ferrel.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Even more slanted and enchanted, May 21, 2000
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
Nobody can fail to be stunned by this record. For me, it is the highest point in the band's career. All the best records are, despite this assertion, prey to some of the fiercest criticism and 'Wowee Zowee' came under fire from all quarters: 'too produced', 'a step backwards', 'not cohesive enough', some of the most deeply voiced responses. Well, surely Pavement are supposed to be a reaction against obvious traditional song structures! It would hardly be a good thing if they continued to copy their past records, however entertaining that might be.Personally, I like the way the music is seemingly just thrown together on this album. I read a review saying that even the most hardcore fans of the band could not like every song. Including myself, I know five other people that absolutely love the record, from the lazy piano on 'We Dance' right through to the last chords of 'Western Homes'! I am sure we are not alone. For the 'uninitiated', please be patient. The beauty and technical brilliance of this CD takes time to appreciate. And most of all, it has the vital ingredient - fun.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Pavement hath arrived, August 22, 2002
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
Sometimes I get to thinking weird things about this album. For example, I might ponder, 'Would the 90s have been the 90s without Wowee Zowee? I mean, when they had finished, would it have been worth it? This album is truly the anchor of the 90s.'But for all my random musings, I will tell you what I do not find myself thinking about it: 'This album is the beginning of the end for Pavement.' That's just wacko. Wowee Zowee was Pavement's first masterpiece. I've always thought of Pavement first for their exceptional songmanship, their unparalleled talent for complex and creative rock compositions, and second for their lo-fi pop stylings. This is perhaps because I was introduced to them backwards. Hearing their polished work, I was blown away by what this band could do with rock: the zany, bombastic soundscapes of their instrumental break-downs, the mind-blowing melodic interplay and guitar-intertwining that lied beneath Malkmus' nonsensical drone. All of these brilliant qualities are present and not quite sober in this album. It is, in my opinion, the first complete appearance of Pavement's musical genius: since I have never cared to call them geniuses just for their murky production, or the sloppy imitations of hooks that characterize CRCR. Whether it's the goofy but concise and complex melodic detail of songs like Grave Architecture (trust me it's there), or the awe-inspiring adventurous soundscapes of songs like Grounded, Wowee Zowee is soaked with catchy, fun, hard-rocking brilliance. At times subtle, at times jarring, but always bold and fully-realized, it's a truly unique album that has become one of the cornerstones of what I consider great music. A masterpiece.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Don't believe the (anti) hype., October 12, 2004
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
This was Pavement's follow-up to their supposedly more "accessible" album "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain." Critics at the time criticized "Wowee" as a willful return to the lo-fi experimentalism of the band's early singles, and as such thought it showed Pavement's contempt for their new MTV-viewing fans.
Don't believe it. Though there's definitely some oddball noodling here, "Wowee" also boasts more than its fair share of wicked cool pop songs. Like the gorgeous "Grounded." Or "Rattled By the Rush" -- complete with a killer hook more or less swiped from the Rolling Stones.
It's also the album which, to me, best captures the band's casual, irreverent performance style. Check out "Brinx Job," with its gleeful cries of "We got da money!" S.M., Spiral Stairs et al are having a freakin' blast.
So will you. IMHO, this is the Pavement album that most holds up to repeated listenings. Be not afraid!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Indie Rock Classic, November 29, 2005
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
One of the top albums of the nineties. Less accessible than its predecessor 'Crooked Rain Crooked Rain' but every bit as essential. Some Pavement fans call it the band's 'White Album' due to the album's length and variety. 'Father To A Sister Of Thought' may be my favorite Pavement song ever. Looking forward to a Matador rerelease treatment like for the first two Pavement LPs as the B-sides from this era are among the band's finest.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Not the Best Pavement album..., May 6, 2002
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
...but that's not to say that it is a bad album per se'. Compared to the classic Slanted and Enchanted and more straight forward rock of Crooked Rain, I can see how the rock critics found it difficult to fathom. But I see it in a totally different light - its sudden changes in structure are intriguing and it's variety means it is not an album you get sick of very easily compared to, in some cases, a more straight-forward offering. Who else would have had the gusto to include "Father to a Sister of Thought", with its country tinges, on the same album as a good old garage rocker such as "Flux=Rad"? The answer: No-one does it like Pavement. The Bravery shown in the Bowie-esque opener "We Dance" in terms of it's slow ballad style has to be admired, as does one of my personal favourites off the album "AT&T" for it's complex lyrical structure, another Pavement trademark which has won them fans the world over. Overall, I wouldn't write this album off so quickly as other rock critics have done in the past; rather than seeing "Patchiness", I see "Variety", rather than "Self-Indulgence", I see "Attention to Detail." The whole Pavement package is unique and, in many ways, this album exemplifies that to a tee and, hey, aren't we a poorer music world without them??
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Non Sensical Brilliance, November 4, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Wowee Zowee (Audio CD)
The strangest album they ever made and the best album I own. This album is a litmus test for one's musical taste. Sure I love all of the Pavement I own and god bless them for ep's with more than one b-side and an instrumental. But this album alone justifies Pavement's existence. It's the first album I owned by the band (finding Pavement in Puritanville CT is not so easy - a far cry from Stockton California I guess) and upon first listening I thought that I was wrong for buying it. But then one day while driving while "Grave Architecture" was on then the rest of the songs to the very end I thought were just one complete song. I had to check the track list to assure myself of their beginning and end. And if "Fight This Generation" doesn't make you want to do something then check your pulse. Especially during the synthesizer solo. And for those who forgot, poetry is saying I love you by expressly not using the words I love you. Pavement forgets not. Face it, poetry is dead, but Pavement lives.
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