Album Review: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Sparkle Hard

Stephen Malkmus' seventh post-Pavement album with his increasingly excellent outfit The Jicks is in spirit most akin to his alma mater since his eponymous 2001 solo debut, but given he's barely set a foot wrong in the intervening years it's best examined in the context of more immediate history.

Less flippant at heart than 2014's Wig Out At Jagbags and more ambitious than the nonchalant elegance of 2011's Mirror Traffic - both of which skewed more conventional than the jammy trio preceding them - there's a real depth to the painstaking and wonderfully unpredictable arrangements, while Malkmus' arcane, stream-of-consciousness dreamscapes still carry that trademark velvet caress.

Cast Off opens in a woozy haze of clunked piano before Future Suite ushers peak familiarity by swathing SM's trademark playful cadence and elegant wordplay over lysergic indie-rock tropes. He's at his cruisy, laid-back best on Solid Silk before Bike Lane morphs from driving motorik to piano boogie without skipping a beat.

The elegant Middle America and joyous rocker Shiggy prove perfectly representative singles, while Rattler's faux-prog excursion includes an AutoTune experiment (thankfully brief) and Kite unveils into an epic, upbeat funk odyssey. Towards the back Refute blooms from a lazy country shuffle into a duet with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and closing blockbuster Difficulties - Let Them Eat Vowels builds from its subdued, lounge origins towards off-kilter orchestral flourishes before bursting into a shimmer of slinky, futuristic power-pop - the perfect climax to another fascinating aural journey.