Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

4 Stars (out of 5) - "...an album that's darker and more beguiling than their heralded previous efforts....CROOKED RAIN's clean production and insidiously catchy melodies hardly signify that Pavement have sold out--if anything, their vision is more warped and caustic than before...."
5 stars out of 5 - "[S]uperbly crafted rock that only seemed splayed at the edges."
Included in Rolling Stone's The 10 Best Reissues & Anthologies Of 2004 - "[T]welve songs of stumbling majesty, cutting jangle and instinctive perfection."
Ranked #62 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
Ranked #13 in Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums Of The Year' - "...magic....New York punk with extra bend..."
"[I]t now stands as not just Pavement's best record, but probably the single greatest indie-rock record ever made." - Grade: A+
"[T]his album represents frontman Steve Malkmus's high-water mark as a snarky color commentator on plastic pop culture." - Grade: A-
4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he band hits a golden seam of song that feels as wide open and free as the Pacific Interstate."
"[M]ost bands would give their career to write any of these slacker anthems - and now it's even better."
"[I]t remains the defining statement from the kings of indie rock."
"It was here that their freewheeling, tangential, hipster approach to rock came into sharper focus."
"...So good they named it twice....Pavement invent and invert and kick ass and kick the brow of greatness...."
Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #2 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
Village Voice (2/22/94, p.61) - "...Like R.E.M., whose taste for romantic melodicism and lyrical obscurity they equal if not exceed, and Sonic Youth, whose love of noise and the underground that nurtures it they share, Pavement are American originals..." - Rating: A
Ranked #56 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[T]he band employs a greater attention to detail to seamlessly blend the [songs]..."
4 stars out of 5 - "[I]t glowed with balmy West Coast harmonies and summery pop licks."
Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...[CROOKED RAIN] has so many twists, turns, allusions and contradictions that it deserves its own set of Cliff Notes."
"...at heart, CROOKED RAIN is an album that celebrates and denigrates itself....an album largely about the plight of rock bands that, like Pavement, are poised between critical and popular success...."
Ranked #17 in NME's list of the 'Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'
8 (out of 10) - "...Another set of giant steps, without a doubt..."