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reviewed for FasterLouder

American guitar music in the 1990s was a split personality that represented the two sides of an American youth that wanted out from the mass commercialization of MTV and Top 40 radio. On one hand the rise of grunge and nu-metal provided a testosterone outlet for anger and pent up frustration and that suited many perfectly. For those with pop sensibilities and a preference for quirky and literate music the rise of so-called college rock met their needs. Pavement fitted neatly into the latter and by the middle of that decade, as mainstream media appropriated the two scenes, the Californian band were being hailed as one of the more important bands of the time.

Listening back to the selected high points of a decade of music the band’s influences become clearer than they were at the time. The Fall are often cited as a template for Pavement and that loose, collapsing and staggering sound is definitely apparent. A line can also be drawn back through Pixies, R.E.M and Husker Du while they clearly also listened closely to the sounds coming from New Zealand in the 80s like The Clean, The Verlaines and 3Ds.

All of these combined to create something that was, at the time, a refreshing and new take on interesting guitar pop rock and Quarantine The Past for the most part does a fantastic job of highlighting the brilliance of a band who worked within traditional song structures but constantly teased and pushed the boundaries.

The biggest songs that Pavement are known for are all present on this best of. Gold Soundz, the eminently danceable Stereo, Cut Your Hair, the sunny haze of Range Life and Spit On A Stranger are all perfect in their form and function, causing your attention to swing between the choppy, urgent guitars and the casually placed lyrics and melodies of Stephen Malkmus. If you were listening to Pavement in the 90s you’ll be immediately transported back to wherever you were at the time. Nostalgia never felt this good – apart from Pixes perhaps.

Some of the more curious selections that fill out the 23 tracks on the album are Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence that first appeared on the seminal No Alternative compilation before being added to the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain reissue. It is essentially a tribute to R.E.M and name-checks their albums and describes the band members. It serves as a great example of Pavement as fans and not just a slacker art band thinking they are the originators of something. Two States is another clever inclusion that points directly at the shadow of The Fall that brightens some corners of their songwriting.

Wowee Zowee only contributes two songs which is a fair choice in light of it being their weakest album. Fight This Generation is a half asleep protest song while Grounded is almost Pavement by numbers, saved only by a note-bending guitar riff that lifts the song to a memorable place.

Where the compilers have succeeded with Quarantine The Past is that they have bookmarked the range and diversity of Pavement’s music. From their lo-fi beginnings to the warmer layers of Nigel Godrich’s production there is the palpable sense of a band that found its own paths, sometimes taking the overgrown trails and other times just as happy to travel the freeway. Anyone with even a passing interest in Pavement should – in the words of Malkmus – ‘go back to those gold soundz.’