Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: Sparkle Hard - COMPACT DISCS

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: Sparkle Hard - COMPACT DISCSTitle: Sparkle Hard Artist: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Label: Matador Records Product Type: COMPACT DISCS UPC: 744861132820 Genre: Rock Release Date: 2018 05 18 Number of Discs: 1 2018 release. The fact that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured, over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful

Title: Sparkle Hard
Artist: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
Label: Matador Records
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 744861132820
Genre: Rock
Release Date: 2018-05-18
Number of Discs: 1

2018 release. The fact that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured, over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces: how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it? With Sparkle Hard, Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. It's light 'n' breezy, head-down heavy, audacious, melancholic and reflective, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick: it's both unmistakably The Jicks and - due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes (Auto-Tune! A fiddle! Guest vocalist Kim Gordon! One seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro!) - The Jicks refashioned. If 2014's Wig Out At Jag Bags balanced the lengthy prog workouts of Pig Lib with Mirror Traffic's sparky pop moments, then Sparkle Hard bears less obvious direct relation to what's come before. It also has turbocharged energy and enthusiasm by the truckload.

Tracks:
1.1 Cast Off
1.2 Future Suite
1.3 Solid Silk
1.4 Bike Lane
1.5 Middle America
1.6 Rattler
1.7 Shiggy
1.8 Kite
1.9 Brethren
1.10 Refute
1.11 Difficulties - Let Them Eat Vowels