The economy’s screwed. Whether you know how macro-economics work or not you know it’s screwed- TV and Twitter say so. Retirement age is increasing and even if you had a pension, it would probably be devalued, stolen or global Armageddon before you got your withered fingers on it any way. For the under 30’s, to get a job you need to be an intern and rely on daddy’s trust fund for rent, and for the over 30’s your too old to be employed. The politicians don’t care and have other concerns, as Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks identify on Mirror Traffic’s ‘The Senator’, “I know what the Senator wants, what the Senator wants is a blow job”.

Luckily cottage industries came to fill the gap where politicians failed. Creatives and independent thinkers embraced a third way by reinvigorating crafts, and holding fates and markets. Whether it be recycling vintage tea cups for a retro party or hosting a gig on a bandstand, there’s a thriving DIY aesthetic making the wider economy redundant. It’s not a career but producing something beautiful is better than a suburban tracker mortgage, right?

It’s all very nice but it can’t last, eventually the trust fund wears thin and the ideas run dry. Suddenly, the internship and weekend stall can’t provide the latest Mac upgrade or festival ticket. It’s a position many of the 90’s musical greats find themselves, their flame dying out at the end of the decade and members deciding their talents are worthy of solo efforts- their own arts and crafts. It doesn’t matter if it’s actually any good as long they can explore their id, knowing their bands trust fund can support them. But eventually fans forget them, they can’t keep up with the blogs, and they sit in the wrong bars.

Time to get a proper job, even indie icons need to pay the bills. It’s fortunate then that these 90’s bands had clauses in their disbandment –the Indefinate Hiatus. No one had heard those words before about 1998, now everyone’s cashing it in an excuse to get back to the day job. Suede have done it- after no one cared about Brett Anderson’s solo or Tears work, Pulp – Jarvis’ solo stuff was great but admittedly not that great, and we all know (and are probably looking forward to as much as the Olympics) Oasis will reunite in two years once their current follies have bored even themselves. Reef have reformed too!

It’s good to see these nostalgic heritage acts, but’s all a bit sour, like flogging some super-glue back to the glue factory under the pretence of it still being a dead horse, just for the extra dollar. So it was with Pavement’s 2010 reunion tour. Did we need to see them play the same old songs again?

It turned out we did. Pavement’s shows were mesmerising and fantastic events, even better than they had been in the 90’s, but more importantly they felt like the final thank you and goodbye we never had. Whereas gossip circulates about a new Blur record or whether Bernard Butler will do a Robbie and re-join Suede, Pavement felt like a bookend for your favourite story. Now safely on the shelf it was time to move on. For Stephen Malkmus it was needed. Although he had released four acclaimed solo-and with The Jicks- albums, they were truly lovable by only the diehard fans. ‘Jo Jo’s Jacket’ and ‘Us’ were fantastic singles but were only treading water, while 2008’s Real Emotional Trash seemed to lose Malkmus in indulgent cod rock noodlings.

Mirror Traffic however is one of those career defining moments where an alt icon either finds his true self and produces a tremendous work or becomes rudderless with nothing left to prove. To steer him Malkmus recruited Beck to produce the record and what results is a mature record based on craftmanship rather than mere ideas and reflects the diversity of his song writing. Opener and single ‘Tigers’ is straight up Slanted and Enchanted pedal steel pop with classic casual then yelped response vocals, it could easily be in any Pavement set list. ‘No One (As I Be)’ is a laid back cowboy track part Sparklehorse does Terror Twilight, and reminiscent of ‘Paper Tiger ‘form Beck’s Sea Change. Every bit the college Lo-fi Malkmus excels in, ‘The Senator’ is the single that, lyrically, never will be. Having comfortably settled himself into the album, his guitar playing becomes second nature on ‘Brain Gallop’ with high-pitched widdling and discordantly harmonised vocals.

This is clearly an album which fits in to Malkmus’ world view of jangly fuzz pop and irony free commentary, no else could sing “The distortion is way to clear” (‘Asking Price’) and be carefree enough to carry on playing sugar plum riffs. There are unfortunately some moments of indie icon turned indulgent warbler: ‘Long Hard Book’ is sedate Kenny Rogers Americana and ‘Share The Red’ is five minutes of drawn out bluesy riffs and poor couplets: “Have you no ears, have you no eyes, you got no idea of how to survive/ have you no tears, have you no, heart, you got no idea what sets you apart“. But all is forgiven with the two minute fuzz of ‘Tune Grief’-the song Mazes so desperately want to write.

There are plenty of scuzzy guitars on Mirror Traffic, but it’s Malkmus’ quirky folk which makes this an exceptional album. It’s exemplified with the final trio of songs, all of which contain intricate melodies Sunday afternoon acoustics and jangly spasms which shudder the songs away from being twee. ‘All Over Gently’ transposes this core into the pop of The Kinks and The Silver Jews, and ‘Fell Away’ lets it float on a cloud made of harmonies. Closer, ‘Georgeous George’ is a perfect climax which keeps pulling more into it, as if Malkmus has a fuzz bush and melody tree growing in the garden.

Ultimately Mirror Traffic is a record which had to be made. Not only does it set Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks as a real group, and not merely a hobby, but puts Malkmus as a master craftsman on his own terms. He knows how distortion and harmony work together and can mediate between them rather than needing to mediate between members of a band. Career wise he can now be himself and not just Stephen from Pavement. There are still uncertainties, and Beck needed to be part of the set up for extra guidance but Mirror Traffic will cause stocks in Malkmus to soar.