Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Sparkle Hard Vinyl LP 2018

Tracklist:

Cast Off
Future Suite
Solid Silk
Bike Lane
Middle America
Rattler
Shiggy
Kite
Brethren
Refute
Difficulties/Let Them Eat Vowels

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks present new album Sparkle Hard. In February, the band shared its twangy single 'Middle America,' the first new music to surface from the group since 2014. As a follow up, the band shared another taste of the new album with the song, 'Shiggy,' an insanely gleeful, old-school four-chord stomper. Modesty and plain good manners might prevent them from saying so themselves, but 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? Meeting that issue head on in the run up to The Jicks' seventh record involved some "navel gazing", according to singer, songwriter, and guitarist Malkmus and not only in terms of what it means to be releasing music in 2018. If, like him, you're a voracious consumer of all kinds of culture and feel the need to interact with it, rather than just react, then inevitably "there's a world that prompts you to put your best foot forward". With Sparkle Hard Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. And they hit the ground running - on air treads.