Inside Nokia Music

Where do you start with a band like Pavement? In recent years there have been few acts that have cultivated – and then steadfastly retained – a similar level of underground, independent credibility. Or inspired so many other acts with their lo-fi, indie rock sound. In fact, if you heard Quarantine The Past, a retrospective of the band’s initial 10 year stint together, without knowing anything about Pavement and their place in rock music’s pantheon, you could be forgiven for writing them off as yet another grunge-lite outfit pedalling the sort of jangly guitar pop you’d find on an early ‘90s Nirvana or R.E.M. B-side. Which, in a perverse way, is probably the greatest testament that could be paid – those B-sides likely wouldn’t be there without Pavement’s influence, as the band’s sound cross-pollinated with that of their contemporaries, including Sonic Youth and R.E.M.

So it’s only when placed in the context of the early 1990s music scene that Quarantine The Past can be properly appreciated. While the album doesn’t include any unreleased or new tracks (Pavement reformed last year; the comeback tour is underway as you read this) it gathers the band’s most significant tracks from the period spanning 1989 to the breakup in 1999. Stereo and Cut Your Hair will be instantly recognisable to anyone who took an interest in the indie scene in the UK 20 years ago (it makes me shudder to think it was that long ago). Meanwhile, album cuts like Shady Lane/ J vs. S and Date w/IKEA continue Pavement’s pattern of wrapping winding lyrics around surprisingly tight melodies (despite all their efforts to sound to the contrary) that still sound fresh today.

The only criticism that can be levelled at Quarantine The Past is that it gives the desperate-for-new-material Pavement fan what she or he will have been wishing for: something they haven’t heard before. Granted, the tracks have all been given the obligatory run through the digital car wash, but re-mastering Pavement tracks almost robs of them of their raison d’être – they were never about crystal clear fidelity, but rather the quiet, knowing, scratchy warmth of a close friend. Of course, many Pavement fans are obsessive-compulsive completists who’ll buy Quarantine The Past anyway. But it won’t supplant last year’s brilliant and exhaustive deluxe reissues of the band’s original albums, crammed with live recordings, unreleased gems and alternative mixes. No, instead this is the ideal place for a new generation of fans to discover just why Pavement are spoken about with such reverence. It’s an album bursting with songs of charming honesty, intriguing simplicity and that cast the musical mould for a generation.

You can download Quarantine The Past, along with Pavement’s back catalogue, from Nokia Music Store. If you’re a Comes With Music member you can get it all for free.