Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Mirror Traffic – review

Almost as exciting for Pavement fans as an actual reunion (which duly happened last year, on their 21st anniversary) was the news that Stephen Malkmus would be enlisting Beck as a producer on his fifth album with the Jicks. And what a fine pairing. Gone are the meandering, proggy excesses of 2008's Real Emotional Trash , and in their place are sharper, melody-driven tracks that foreground Malkmus's distinctive oblique wit. "Asking Price" is particularly intriguing ("too busy putzing round the internet/revel in the disconnect") but every track reveals more pleasure with each listen.