STEPHEN MALKMUS
AND THE JICKS
Mirror Traffic
Matador
Rating: 
Stephen Malkmus spent most of 2010 living in the past: The reunion of his nineties band, the slackery, almost-stars Pavement, sold out shows around the globe. And so the pre sence of fellow alt-rocker Beck Hansen be hind the boards for this one suggests a continued wallow ing in nostalgia. But we’re happy to report the record presents no such thing. Instead, Beck coaxes the best songs Malkmus has managed in years, yielding a loose-limbed charmer of an album that ambles agreeably between zippy Pavement influenced tracks (“Tigers,” “Forever 28”) and the endless boogie of the Jicks era.
