Pavement Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition Review

Continuing in Domino's deluxe repackaging of the Pavement albums – now becoming something of a bi-annual treat – we have now come to the fourth, 1997's Brighten The Corners. As before in previous re-dos, it's lavishly repackaged with a fancy booklet and remastered with a further 30 tracks taken from sessions and b sides of that period. Making it the ideal gift for an indie uncle.

Brighten The Corners arrived just as Pavement threatened to go overground. Having won over their faithful with debut Slanted & Enchanted, confirmed their genius in Crooked Rain Crooked Rain and bamboozled several with Wowee Zowee, Brighten The Corners appealed as their most pop album yet. Seeing as Blur had apparently 'gone a bit Pavement' earlier that year with their self titled masterpiece, the name-check raised awareness, and a wider audience finally attuned to their skewed, angular and occasionally hilarious world were Pavement's for the taking.

Now, over a decade on, tracks such as the glorious Shady Lane, We Are Underused and highlight Stereo – with one of the best exchanges in a song ever: '''what about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy?' 'I know him, and he does', 'well you’re my fact checking cuz'''. Amazing. Very little dates in Pavement's world and still now Brighten The Corners is a treat from start to finish. The extra bits and bobs include covers of The Killing Moon, and delights such as the fantastically titled Neil Hagerty Meets Jon Spencer In A Non-Alcoholic Bar.

Now, hopefully, once their final album – 1999's Nigel Godrich-produced Terror Twilight - has a polish-up in a couple of years, they can get around to reforming seeing as they are one of the final remaining great bands who've yet to hit the comeback trail. Tremendous.