Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - Wig Out At Jagbags Review

On his sixth album with The Jicks, the ex-Pavement man settles into his role as elder statesman of rock

“We lived on Tennyson and venison and The Grateful Dead”, sings Stephen Malkmus on ‘Lariat’, adding another food pairing to the menu that’s already given us oysters and dry Lancers wine on Pavement’s ‘Shady Lane’ and saag aloo with gin and tonic on ‘Pink Indıa’ from 2001’s ‘Stephen Malkmus’. This time though the 47-year-old is matching his food with the books and records from his past on an album that sees him squinting through rose-tinted specs at “the music from the best decade ever” (‘Lariat’ again), and writing tunes devoid of the sourness and inertia that characterised much of late-period Pavement and his solo career.