I guess its really hard describing stuff you really, truly love satisfactorily, or at least it is for me, because its not really like there’s that much *to* it, loving something (or someone, for that matter). Its just”¦ you know. I love it. I love Pavement. Pavement are my favourite band of all time. Its not something I particularly have to think about. It's just something that *is*. Same as my mother is my mother and I live in Manchester and I just saw that episode of the Larry Sanders show where Hank gets to guest-host. All of these things are because they just are - I don’t really have much of an opinion on them that I really need to express beyond that. Any way I could describe Pavement would be a much weaker description than the fact that I consider them the greatest band that has ever existed, and I consider the music they make to have been the best music that has ever been created by anyone ever and that this fact was basically”¦ well its was basically a fact from the very moment I first heard the opening notes and perfect, perfect lines of ‘Summer Babe’ and then the rest of Slanted & Enchanted happened and that was me for life. But that’s not to say that it didn’t initially take me a while to come round to the immense joys that Brighten The Corners can offer its listeners. Its mellow, its clean-sounding, its breezily poppy but half the hooks don’t really go anywhere and every other line seems to be only there because Malkmus needed something to rhyme with the last one and he’s just kind of reeling them off the top of his head”¦ and oh fuck its just magnificent, isn’t it? I swear I didn’t even realize it, you know I didn’t quite *know* whether or not I’d be this excited about the Brighten The Corners re-issue until I found the promos in the post and couldn’t wait to get ‘Cherry Area’ on (well, after searching in vain for ‘For Sale! The Preston School of Industry’, which was listed in the press release but apparently the tracklisting in the press release was just plain wrong a lot of the time) and then listening to the ‘proper’ part of the album in a relaxed setting and then just like *hearing* how really amazing this album that I’d - relatively speaking, in Pavement terms - never gotten all that enthusiastic about before, despite like I said this band being my favourite Of All Time, but that was mostly based on the sheer insurmountable strength of Westing and Slanted and Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee, not really on the very-goodness of Brighten The Corners, but no. No, now I really do get it when every now and then I meet someone who says its their favourite Pavement album because it really is that good. I’ve always loved it. I’ve always loved “so what about the voice of Geddy Lee” and “aloha means goodbye, but also hello, its just in the inflection” and “your cheeks have lost their lustre” and all that. Of course the best one is still ‘Starlings In The Slipstream’ but still. Oh and don’t I just love these deluxe re-issues too. My promo doesn’t have liner notes (or the proper box for that matter) so I guess I’ll not see them till I get the opportunity to buy it somewhen (soon) but you know, no band would be a viable Greatest Ever without a phenomenal catalogue of rarities, and Pavement always deliver. So we get ‘Cherry Area’, and ‘Nigel’, and some country version of ‘Type Slowly’ and a sort of skat cover of ‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘Winner Of The’ and ‘Westie Can Drum’ and all that. ‘Cherry Area’ btw is one of Pavement’s best and most simple songs, same way ‘I Love Perth’ is, but just like ‘I Love Perth’ I couldn’t see it fitting on any of their albums (as they currently stand). Still, Brighten The Corners: another ridiculously fertile era for Pavement. Their rarities can generally be relied upon to construct an alternate-reality version of the album they’re boxed with from scratch- and I think Brighten The Corners is only slightly behind Crooked Rain in terms of the qualitative viability of that project. Srsly. What I’m saying is: better than the Wowee Zowee (minus Pacific Trim) and Slanted & Enchanted (minus Watery, Domestic) bonuses. Cos you know. Its kind of cheating when they already have whole classic EPs boxed with them. But I mean, like, how great an alternate record is this: 1. Westie Can Drum 2. Cherry Area 3. Nigel 4. Harness Your Hopes (the shorter version from the second disc) 5. No Tan Lines 6. Winner Of The 7. It’s A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl 8. Destroy Mater Dei 9. Wanna Mess You Around 10. Neil Hagerty Meets John Spencer In A Non-Alcoholic Bar 11. Beautiful As A Butterfly 12. Roll With The Wind (Roxy)Huh???? So as you can see, you’re essentially getting *two* great albums in one convenient box set, plus lots of other stuff too. So yeah. I really love this, it’s a great re-mastering of a classic album and the bonus tracks will probs provide a treasure-trove of listening joy for months to come. Every part of my being is happy with it, so could yours be. 100%