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Face the Truth

I’ve been known to call myself “Sinister Joe” from time to time.  You know why?  Because I heard it on a Stephen Malkmus album, and I liked it.

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The album, “Face the Truth” is Stephen Malkmus’ third solo album.  Malkmus, the once lead singer, guitarist, and song writer for the band Pavement, is what I would call a living legend of rock and roll.  Pavement did a lot for rock music and he was one of the main reasons they did.  As a solo artist he moves away from the lo-fi indie garage jam band, and dabbles in a more professional sound.

I went to a Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks concert a few years ago and I was shocked.  I’ve seen concert footage of Pavement and expected the same feel of a low-budget jam band, but it was all business for Malkmus on stage.  He could be one of the best guitarists alive today, quite honestly.  He’s at least one of the best I’ve ever seen (top 3 for sure).  Every song seemed to be at least 5 minutes longer than on the record because of his extended solos.  It was great.

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The first solo album was fantastic, and the second actually has one of my favorite songs ever written on it (“Vanessa From Queens”), but as a whole, Face the Truth is the strongest and most well written album of the original three.

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Ok, let’s talk turkey.  Face the Truth opens with “Pencil Riot.”  The guitar-work throughout the entire album is phenomenal, and this track introduces you to Malkmus’ style in the best possible way.  The song is louder than most on the album.  The distortion might be a little misleading because the rest of the album is much more mellow.

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Thanks to KCRW and their awesomeness, I actually have some videos to post for this album.  They are all acoustic, and as good as they sound now they’re a lot better on the album.

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The thing I love about this album is that, like many albums on this list, has a lot of personality.  Stephen Malkmus is great about being creative and trying new things in his music.  His albums come alive with character.  “It Kills” shows off his guitar skills, but it also introduces the listeners to his song writing skills that seem to blend the carefully plotted musical arrangement and the freestyle verse.

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“Freeze the Saints” is home to some of the best lyrics I feel Stephen Malkmus has ever written.  The lyrics are surreal and if you listen close enough, it might not speak to you, but if you take a step back, the mood of the song and the images he creates with his words blend into a great experience.  “If you need the pain/then you are, yes you are, so much like me/…nothing lasts for long/ except the earth and the mountains./so, learn to sing along and languish here./ Help me languish here.”

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The single off of this album was “Baby C’mon.”  The video is pretty awesome.  It looks like those ads for HP that rocked so hard about 5 years ago.  The song is very guitar driven and very much more energetic than other tracks off the album with the exception of “Pencil Riot.”  I really wish I could find a video for that song, but I couldn’t.  I guess you’ll just have to buy the album.

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Stephen Malkmus gets the number one spot for a few reasons.  While Okkervil River is the most emotionally moving album on the list, Face the Truth is an album anyone can pick up and just enjoy for the simple fact that the music is fun, exciting, different, and has such character.  Also, if you look past what the album seems to be, you’ll find great meaningful lyrics and an artist that is just adding to a great line he’s drawn on the landscape of rock music.  To put it simply, this is an album that deserves to be a classic and everyone should listen to it.  You can get this album used for $2.50 on Amazon.com.  Do it.  I’ll post the other videos I found from this album now.