I went to see Malkmus the other day - essentially, his new band sound just like Pavement, but the songs are in general not as good. It's as if he sacked them because he didn't like them criticising his songs, and now his new lot have no quality control. This one however is really, really, really good - really nice hawaiian guitar, with Malkmus considering 'how small we humans are' in a song - really - about Greek Gods.

Forget everything I wrote about Trojan Curfew - I have now decided that a) his new band can be pretty brilliant, and b) I slightly overrated TC - the music is astonishingly beautiful, but the lyrics are all downhill from the second verse.

Now - Church on white is the real deal. Yet more of Malkmus' beautiful, aching music (how _does_ he do it?), with his voice giving more meaning to lines such as 'carry on/ it's a marathon' than they probably deserve. The chorus of 'All you ever wanted/ was everything/ plus everything/ and the truth/ I only bought you/ half a lie' is one of his best, as is the instrumental break. His best solo effort, is my opinion for this evening at least.

Yul Brenner, falsetto chorus what more could you want?