My first impressions of this album weren't very good. I had wanted to ask the question: Does Malkmus get a free pass for his past. That is, are those weaned on Pavement more likely to give his later, less-interesting stuff a favorable review, or in another way, can Malkmus ever escape his past? Can his post-Pavement albums ever not be compared? The problem, as I see it, is that all these factors need to be taken into account; there does need to be a facet of the review that compares Face the Truth with everything before it, but there also needs to be a side that looks at it as it is.
In the first capacity, I would situate Face the Truth between Pib Lib and the self-titled, with s/t ranking the highest. I think this is the first album we've gotten from Malkmus that doesn’t contain a cringe-worthy song (can I draw everyone's attention to "Craw Song"), and the goofiness is balanced well with the serious songs. His lyrics are nowhere as interesting as they used to be: "In my head/there's a bed/it's unmade/it's a lovely leather-bound poison" (ok, "lovely leather-bound poison" is pretty cool). But how about "Mama's in the kitchen with onions/Daddy's in the back with ol' Hank?" Or "I'm the leech who can preach/They call me Sinister Joe?" I think the main problem I have with Malkmus since Pavement, or since the s/t, is that I get the feeling he's coasting, not that he's necessarily lazy, but rather that he's just content; he already participated in a fairly-influential band, now he just wants to create his re-interpreted classic or risible indie rock, and not really push himself.
Contextless though, this is a fun album. It's catchy and full of hooks and there are some pretty songs too ("Freeze the Saints," "Malediction"). The rock stuff is even good. "No More Shoes" could have been a wreck, but I think his vocal melody saves it. The sense of desperation in "It Kills" is visceral – see: "Here or there or someplace else, man, anywhere." I'm not sure what people expect from Malkmus at this point, that is, if you still want him to be creating ground-breaking work, you're just going to be disappointed, but if instead you just expect simple enjoyment – and this is not to say the two are mutually exclusive, there is plenty of music that is both fun and innovative – but at this point, based on his three solo albums, I no longer think that's a fair expectation. It's unfortunate, sure, but... no, it's just unfortunate.
