Quarantining the Past: The 15 Best Pavement Songs
In honor of the long-awaited Terror Twilight deluxe reissue, we look at the indie rock icons' 15 best songs.
Ask just about any music nerd and they'll agree: Pavement is one of the most important (and maybe the best) indie rock band of the 1990s.
Led by effortlessly cool frontman/songwriter Stephen Malkmus, Pavement formed in Stockton, California in the late '80s, releasing five studio albums before their breakup in 1999. They inspired like-minded indie rockers of the late '90s like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, and their influence has trickled all the way down to Gen Z songwriters like beabadoobee and Snail Mail's Lindsey Jordan.
Since their breakup, all of Pavement's albums have received deluxe reissues — except for their last and most polarizing LP, Terror Twilight. To honor the long-awaited reissue (and the 2020 Pavement reunion that, obviously, didn't end up happening), we've rounded up the band's 15 best songs below.
11. “Box Elder” (Slay Tracks EP)
As Pavement grew to be icons of the slacker rock subgenre, it's heartwarming to hear the scrappy origins on the band's first EPs, inspired by experimental post-punks like the Fall and Swell Maps.
"Box Elder," from Pavement's debut EP Slay Tracks, juxtaposes a sweet, pop melody with angst and a longing for escape: "I've got a lot of good things coming my way / And I'm afraid to say that you're not one of them," Malkmus sings.
