Mirror Traffic (2011)

Mirror Traffic (2011)

“I run into parts where I don’t have anything good to sing, and I just sing borderline clichés or things I hope no one is really listening to,” Malkmus told Dean Wareham in a
revealing interview with Salon published around the time of Mirror Traffic’s release. “When that happens, I just think, well, it’s like classic rock.” Such candor is admirable from a man whose lyrics have probably inspired more tattoos than he’s comfortable knowing about. The classic rock analogue is unfortunately not restricted to lyrical clichés, though: Mirror Traffic is in many ways a quintessential “back-to-basics” record, that perennial rock and roll sham on which an artist’s previous attempts to experiment beyond marketability are reigned in, usually at the request of the label, by a “name” producer (in this case, the ubiquitous Beck). There are more songs on Mirror Traffic than on any previous Stephen Malkmus album, and it is the first album since Malkmus’ debut — now a decade old — to not feature a song exceeding eight minutes in length (the longest here is barely over five). Like most “back to basics” albums, Mirror Traffic often sounds desperate to please. Beck as producer mostly stays out of the way, though his influence can be heard on the lumpy Sea Change-sounding coda of “No One Is (As I Are Be),” the skittering spotlessness of “Stick Figures In Love,” and the Laurel Canyon mosey of “Long Hard Book.” Most of it sounds like indie rock pastiche, but at least it’s good indie rock pastiche: Opener “Tigers” recalls a neutered Silkworm; the drowsy “No One Is (As I Are Be)” evokes a phoned-in Bonnie Prince Billy, especially in the phrasing; “Tune Grief” sounds like the kind of noise-pop blast that Goo-era Sonic Youth could fire off between connecting flights. Malkmus originally wanted to call the album LA Guns, but, fearing litigation from the hair metal band of the same name, ultimately reconsidered. Perhaps a better title would have been something along the lines of Motley Crew.