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Avg: 3.5 (15 ratings)
- Date Released: October 20, 2009
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Matador
Malkmus's second banana steps into the spotlight and owns it with grace
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We Say...
Spiral Stairs, AKA Scott Kannberg, has never resembled a leader. As the guitarist for Pavement, his textures and tones were precise but loose, his languid, dripping lines perfectly complementing front man Stephen Malkmus' urbane, arched-eyebrow disaffection. For those beautiful sins, Kannberg was relegated to second banana status, sneaking in the occasional song onto a Pavement album, like the dissonant blast "Hit the Plane Down." In a way, he was the sound, but never the star of one of the most important bands of the '90s.
Since the split in 1999, Kannberg has indulged some classic rock tendencies, bathing in reverb for two albums with his band Preston School of Industry. The Real Feel is his first proper solo album, but it's hardly a divergence from what he'd been compiling with PSOI: ramshackle guitar highlighted by bendy psych solos, subgenre dabbling, typically inconclusive lyrics, and a surprisingly appealing howl. Opener "True Love" is the cascading piece de resistance here, a tumbling, sad-eyed jaunt that recalls Richard Thompson at his string-ripping best. The propulsive "Stolen Pills" is a burst of punk fury, "Maltese T" dabbles in peppy '60s sunshine rock, and the pained, eight-minute "Blood Money" is as straight-faced and crushing a song as he's written. "Sometimes I just don't know what to do," he laments. It's not so easy owning the spotlight. This time, Kannberg does it with grace.
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| 01. |  |
True Love |
4:10 |
|
| 02. | |
Call The Ceasefire |
6:43 |
|
| 03. | |
Cold Change |
3:16 |
|
| 04. | |
Subiaco Shuffle |
5:20 |
|
| 05. | |
Wharf Hand Blues |
5:51 |
|
| 06. | |
Maltese T |
4:04 |
|
| 07. | |
A Mighty Mighty Fall |
4:55 |
|
| 08. | |
Stolen Pills |
2:27 |
|
| 09. |
The Real Feel |
0:17 |
|
|
| 10. | |
Blood Money |
8:09 |
|
| 11. | |
Ladies and Gentlemen |
1:07 |
|
11 Total Tracks, 46:19 Total Length
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