QUARANTINE THE PAST - Pavement (2010)

Okay, it's a bit of cheat throwing a greatest hits collection into the mix, and it's no substitute for going out and grabbing the original releases (especially groundbreaking debut Slanted and Enchanted and its even better follow-up Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain) but for those unfamiliar with the work of this great 90s indie act, this is a wonderfully assembled package.

Sequenced for optimal listening flow rather than chronology, and pulling from everything in the band's canon, from early EPs to late career rarities and with nearly all the biggest cuts from their key 90s releases sprinkled throughout (Conduit For Sale and Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era from Slanted were my only heartbreak omissions), Quarantine is a fabulous condensation of the band's body of work.

And what comes through most for me, despite all the noisy, genre-smashing, lo-fi dissonance they shared with many of their early 90s contemporaries, is...perish the thought...what a great straight up singles act the band was.

It ain't for those who like their music kind, soft and pretty, but for those who can handle rough musical edges and huge dollops of snot-nosed lyrical snark, this is one of 2010's essential purchases.

Status: Highest Recommend

Cherry Picker's Best Bets: Just suck it up and buy the album.

Component Breakdown:

1. Gold Soundz - 10
2. Frontwards - 9
3. Mellow Jazz Docent - 8
4. Stereo - 9
5. In the Mouth A Desert - 8
6. Two States - 8
7. Cut Your Hair - 10
8. Shady Lane/J Vs. S - 8
9. Here - 9
10. Unfair - 10
11. Grounded - 8
12. Summer Babe - 9
13. Range Life - 9
14. Date w/ Ikea - 9
15. Debris Slide - 9
16. Shoot The Singer - 8
17. Spit On A Stranger - 8
18. Heaven Is A Truck - 7
19. Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17 - 9
20. Embassy Row - 10
21. Box Elder - 9
22. Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence - 8
23. Fight This Generation - 8
Intangibles - High