I want to revise my opinion on Pavement’s last album TERROR TWILIGHT. Previously, I said it was disappointing. In fact, it’s not. It’s actually an incredible album. I read a review of it before I got terribly into in, I think on allmusic.com, which said that it felt something like a Malkmus solo album, and I think that colored my initial impression. Actually it feels very much like a collaborative effort. “Spit on a Stranger” is an incredible song, as is “Carrot Rope” and “Ana don’t cry,” and those songs rank with Pavement’s finest. Also exceptional is Malkmus’s most recent solo album, FACE THE TRUTH. It’s the best thing he’s done since Pavement. His first solo album is great too. Only the middle one is lacking something.

Also, check out the new Pleiades, which has two prose pieces by me—one is an extended review of Simon Armitage’s selected poems THE SHOUT. The other is a review of Richard Siken’s debut CRUSH. Also, there are poems by Louise Gluck’s forthcoming Yale selection, along with an excerpt from her introduction.

Also check out the new issue of Octopus, which features 8 reviews I edited of books by Andrea Baker, Dan Chiasson, Arielle Greenberg, David Larsen, Danielle Pafunda, Richard Siken, Rachel Zucker, and Cole Swensen. Those are the ones I edited, but there are others, too, along with a heap of wonderful poems and other great stuff.