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[Spartan Pho3nix]

So, rank Slanted, Crooked, Wowee, Brighten, and Terror in order of your favorite to your least favorite, and maybe list some reasons.

1) Wowee Zowee. So awesome. So diverse. So fun. Great tracks, awesome replayability.
2) Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement's first and noisiest. Catchy songs and good album.
3) Brighten the Corners - My first pavement Album. Accessible, not as weird, more produced, like newer Malkmus.
4) Crooked Rain - Most pop album, the songs just aren't as fun, in my opinion.
5) Terror - Pretty bland, you can tell Pavement is bored.

[rive gauche]

Crooked Rain is my favourite because it is the first Pavement album that I ever listened to. I stole it from my brother thinking it was going to be some insane hardcore band (I was young ). I was delightfully surprised.

Wowee Zowee has a sweet cover.

[KharBevNor]

1)Terror - Because it has the coolest name
2)Crooked Rain - Grim name
3)Slanted and Enchanted - Rhyming is fun
4)Brighten the corners - Brightness sucks
5)Wowee Zowee - campest name

As you may be able to tell, I've never heard anything by this band.

[RUMBLEMOOSE]

1) Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
If you can get over them breaking your heart by abandoning their "guitar fuzz/guitar fuzz/offkey vocal" instrumentation scheme, this album is one of the greatest records ever made by anyone ever. I also don't think it's their poppest (BtheC), but it's a marked diversion into indie rock and it defined indie rock for the next hundred years (or at least five or six).

2) Slanted + Enchanted
Splits the difference perfectly between the indie rock of Crooked Rain and the fuzzbox-explosions of the first EPs. Harder to successfully rip off than Crooked Rain.

3) Wowee Zowee
aka "The Blue Album," it's laced with genius but extremely long, sprawling, and kinda frustrating to beginning listeners. But how can you beat an album that opens with a line about castration?

4) Brighten the Corners
5) Terror Twilight
I'm going to buck the trend and say that these were good albums. BtheC edges out Terror Twilight by virtue of having a few songs with Spiral Stairs taking vocals, and of course by rocking just slightly harder. Terror Twilight sounds like the band were trying a folk-rock direction, and judging by Malkmus' solo records and the PSOI stuff that came out after Pavement broke up, I don't think any of them really wanted to go in that direction all that much, but there were still some solid and interesting songs on it.

And honorable mention goes to Watery, Domestic for being better than all five albums, despite only being ten minutes long. God Damn that record is amazing.

[surefunk]

so, pavement ranking, i have to put crooked rain on top.  maybe it's a little poppy, and obviously the first half is way, way stronger than the second half.  but for ten years now i've loved that album enough to hear it constantly.  don't you just bond with an album when you've had it on cassette, then cd, and now on your computer?
after crooked rain, i've got slanted, and then couldn't really play favorites among the others.  love them all.
side project sidebar- how about silver jews rankings?  i don't know if i'll ever decide which is better between american water and natural bridge.  still waiting for tanglewood to grown on me these days.

[Inlander]

The problem with that idea is that the Silver Jews were never and never will be a Pavement side-project.

I like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain a bejigger-load, but I don't like ranking albums all that much.

[Merkava]

Why do people not like Terror or Brighten? Geez, people, they were good albums. Who cares if they weren't trying so hard to be fun and playful? We had enough of that. It would have gotten boring if they didn't mellow out a bit.

[pat101]

Crooked Rain
Slanted Enchanted
Wowee Zowee
Terror Twlight
Brighten the Corners

[fathertoasisterofthought]

I couldn't possibly post on this forum with this name and not respond to this topic:

1. Wowee Zowee: The album that defines the term "grower"; I didn't like it at first, but as I ventured further into the tracks, sifting through everything, I began to love it. All encompasing, kind of unfocused, but still my favorite. "We Dance" gets the best opening song on a Pavement album award.

2. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: The anti-sophomore slump. Poppy, yes, but who said there was anything wrong with that? Slanted sets 'em up, Crooked Rain knocks 'em down. Certainly the album to stear your friends toward when they say they want to get into Pavement.

3. Slanted and Enchanted: The monolith of 1990's indie rock. The liner notes to the "Luxe and Reduxe" version put it best: "the album that launched a thousand Weezers" (or something to that effect).

Tie for 4th: Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight
I have to admit, my extreme devotion to the first three records has pretty much limited my exposure to the final two. "Shady Lane" is a nice little song, probably one of their best. I like to describe Terror Twilight in terms of a roadsign I see every so often: "Uneven Pavement".

[Spartan Pho3nix]

American Water is an amazing album. AMAZING. It's a shame Berman has never been able to repeat it. No other silver jews material comes close - it's all boring in comparison. American water, american water american water.

Silver Jews = American Water.

[Kid Modernist]

I think I would place Terror Twilight as third on my list. I'm surprised at how low it is, I love it. Spit on a Stranger is my very favorite Pavement song. Major Leagues is a great'un. There is a lot of good stuff on it.

[pat101]

American Water is an amazing album. AMAZING. It's a shame Berman has never been able to repeat it. No other silver jews material comes close - it's all boring in comparison. American water, american water american water.

Silver Jews = American Water.

Dear Lord that's an amazing album. Honk if you're lonely tonight makes me smile every time. Send in the Clowns too, when he sings "allowed in the GAaammmeee" just like mick jagger. lol

[Inlander]

Howsabout one of you goes and starts a Silver Jews thread, and then we can all go and be merry about them over there.  I've been tooting their horn a lot around these parts recently, so somebody else do it.

Also, Tanglewood Numbers is a damn good album.  Not an instant classic the way American Water is, but still . . . I get shivers up my spine from "Punks in the Beerlight".

[surefunk]

so has anyone heard this album of jazz covers of pavement songs?  by a sax player named james carter, i believe.  i heard a bit about it on the radio the other day, and they played snips of some songs.  it was...well, it was jazz.  but i'm definitely curious.  
oh, and in the radio piece the reviewer suggested that cut your hair was the most popular pavement song.  that just doesn't feel right to me, but i don't know if i could name a more "popular" one.

[Spartan Pho3nix]

Cut your hair is prob the most popular but far from the best.

[xan]

I kind of feel bad for bands like Pavement though.  After everyone loved Slanted and Enchanted all of their follow up albums were constantly compared with the band's past catalogue, when we all should of just been happy that they were releasing very solid albums.

That being said, I'd put Crooked River, Slanted and then Terror Twilight in my top three.

[Cue PSA music]

To learn about other bands who were victims of their own success, please also see:  The New Pornographers or Broken Social Scene

[Spartan Pho3nix]

You're right, to a degree. Your problem is that you posted bands which are, all together, too good to really be victims of their own sucess.

Every follow up (3/4 Pavement LPS, BSS s/t, and Twin Cinema) all might not have been as good as the original masterpieces (Slanted, you forgot it in people, The Electric Version), but every one of those albums holds it's own out of context. And they are all outstanding and very popular and well known. I don't think that the previous records greatness detracts from all the following albums - it just makes them more popular and maybe adds expectations, which can cause a bit of dissapointment at not quite matching the previous greatness.

But, i'll give BSS for an example, on first listen I knew that the s/t wasn't quite as perfect as You forgot it in people, but the more I listened, I realized that it had it's own merits outside of the BSS's history and know I like the album for it's own reasons, but because the band produced the previous album.

[fathertoasisterofthought]

To learn about other bands who were victims of their own success, please also see:  The New Pornographers or Broken Social Scene

I have to completely disagree with you on both counts. While Twin Cinema and Broken Social Scene a slight departures from the albums that came before them, they are the sound of growth for both bands. Twin Cinema proved the New Pornos are more than just great hooks lush harmonies, yet remained an incredibly catchy album. And it still boggles my mind how every time I listen to Broken Social Scene, I pick up on another musical texture or lyrical nuance. Both bands far exceeded the expectations I had.

[spizzletrunk]

I love 'em all, really.  Since I started listening to music on my iPod shuffle play, I've been judging bands in terms of songs rather than albums.  I tend to listen to more stuff from Wowee/Brighten, though.