Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Mirror Traffic

Stephen Malkmus’ solo career began promisingly, with 2001’s tune-packed eponymous LP, but recent efforts have lacked the exuberance and imagination that characterises his best work. Mirror Traffic has a similarly woozy, dreamlike feel to 2008’s Real Emotional Trash – even verging upon psychedelia at times – but this record, thankfully, is more unashamedly melodic. Tracks like Spazz, a crazed mashup of lurching garage riffs that shifts hyperactively between tempos and time signatures, even compare favourably with Pavement’s more eccentric moments.

At the other end of the scale, Malkmus indulges his predilection for melancholy country-inflected moods – most notably on No One (Is As I Are Be), which features some strangely gravelly, Mark Linkous-esque vocals. He evidently remains determined to expand his repertoire beyond melodic guitar pop, and although the uptempo tracks are the most enjoyable here, Mirror Traffic features an impressively broad sweep of ideas. Above all, it demonstrates an admirable desire to continue evolving as a songwriter. [Sam Wiseman]