Pavement - Wowee Zowee

Originally released 25 years ago on April 11, 1995, Wowee Zowee was the third studio album that seminal 90’s rock band Pavement put out on Matador Records. Their most eclectic effort saw the band disrupt traditional rock conventions of genre and style as they careen wildly from the country-tinged “Father to a Sister of Thought” to the bluesy intro of “Extradition” to the psychedelic wooze of “Brinx Job”, all strung together by Malkmus’s idiosyncratic and farcical lyricism. The record’s energy oscillates throughout its 18 tracks with ballads featuring chiming arpeggios like “Grounded” and “AT&T” that are routinely upended by up-tempo bursts of distortion and fuzz from the likes of “Serpentine Pad”, “Flux=Rad” and “Best Friends Arm”. The overall effect is to generate a frenetic mosaic of slow-burners that persists today as the most charming and timeless collection of songs in the Pavement catalog.