Vinyl Record

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain on LP vinyl. A 1994 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 1994

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 1994 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is Pavement's 1994 second album, the moment their crooked private language became legible enough to travel without losing its shrug. After Slanted & Enchanted and the Watery, Domestic EP had made them central to American indie rock, this record sounds more open, more tuneful and more knowingly social, but it still resists polish in all the right places. Silence Kit begins with an almost classic-rock confidence before wobbling into Pavement logic. Elevate Me Later and Stop Breathin carry melancholy without tidying it up. Cut Your Hair turns a music-industry joke into the band's accidental MTV doorway, while Gold Soundz and Range Life became generational shorthand for slack beauty, ambivalence and soft rebellion. Fillmore Jive ends the album as a long, bleary farewell to scenes, poses and expectations. Released into the same 1990s moment that was turning alternative culture into business, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain sounds like Pavement grinning at the machine from just outside the frame.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain matters because it expanded Pavement from lo-fi cult heroes into one of the defining indie bands of the 1990s. It proved that their off-kilter humour and damaged guitar pop could become accessible without becoming obedient.

For collectors, this is a core Pavement title and the natural companion to Slanted & Enchanted. It has the songs that made the band's language portable, especially Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz and Range Life, while preserving the looseness that keeps the record alive.

1990s indie rock with jangling guitars, loose drums, sardonic vocals, melodic slackness, college-radio brightness and sudden turns from throwaway wit to bruised beauty.

Recommended for: Collectors building a 1990s American indie rock shelf; Pavement fans who want the band's most approachable early album; Listeners drawn to guitar pop that is funny, frayed and emotionally sharp.

When was Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain released? Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was released in 1994 as Pavement's second studio album. Which songs are most associated with the album? Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz, Range Life, Silence Kit and Fillmore Jive are among the album's defining tracks. How does it differ from Slanted & Enchanted? It is cleaner, more melodic and more outward-facing, while still keeping Pavement's looseness, irony and strange guitar angles intact.