Aha! Surprise ‘V’ attack. Yeah, there were only 16 songs to write about beginning with the letter ‘U’. Wasn’t quite the marathon the ‘T’-section was. I don’t need a break after writing 16 posts. There are only 11 songs starting with ‘V’ that I have at my disposal. Might as well go straight into them. The first ‘V’ tune we’ll be looking at is ‘Vague Space’ by Stephen Malkmus (and the Jicks). The track’s from his 2001 self-titled album, his first ‘solo’ effort after Pavement’s split the previous year. I’ve noted it as my favourite solo Malkmus album in the past. Listened to it for the first time in September 2012. Returned to it in January 2014 ’cause Wig Out at Jagbags had arrived. I then listened through Stephen Malkmus on a train ride from Manchester to Coventry the following month, and I think it was that occasion that made me very familiar with the whole package. Nothing that aids musical understanding like the motion of a locomotion. By the end of 2014, the album was on regular rotation in my library, and, according to my Spotify files, ‘Vague Space’ was a song on there I repeated many, many times.
Don’t want to assume, but I don’t think ‘Vague Space’ would be one of those titles that fans would be shouting out, requesting to hear at Stephen Malkmus shows. As I write, it’s currently the eighth most-played track from his solo debut on Spotify, bettering opener ‘Black Book’, ‘Discretion Grove’ – weird ’cause it was a single, ‘Trojan Curfew’ – needs justice, and closer ‘Deado’. All very solid songs. It’s low in the pecking order, a little low on the ladder. If Malkmus did jokingly ask for requests during a live performance, I’d try and get my shout in for it if I was there. I hold ‘Vague Space’ as one of the songs from his first album that really show just how much fun he was having now that he was on his own. In the introduction, you’re greeted with a two-note melody on an organ followed by a descending scale on wah-wah pedal’d guitar. Just the back and forth between the two feels very playful in its intention immediately. Two very different elements that somehow manage to sound great when placed together. Then there’s the addition of keyboards during the verses that have been set to a steel drum preset to, I don’t know, add a little flavour or something. I’d like to think this was the thing that was being referred to when the album was originally titled Swedish Reggae before it got changed somewhere down the line.
This does however go down in a list of Stephen Malkmus songs where you do have to question, “What is this guy talking about?” I wish I could provide either the video or interview where Malkmus said – I’m paraphrasing – that he usually sees writing his lyrics as little wordplay exercises. He did say that somewhere. And I think that’s more or less the case with ‘Vague Space’ too. But even so, there’s usually still something to grip on to, at least Malkmus listeners like to think so, and that’s what always keeps them – but myself included – wanting more. So, let’s see. “Do you want to know where it stands right now / Do you really care what, when, why or how / I came to crave your spastic touch / The honest ways you move’s too much.” First verse. And then the chorus is simply “I looove to teeear you off” and the instruments rise in intensity as it’s sung. Hell, I don’t know. Maybe the whole thing is a love song in Malkmus’s own way. Some context, he moved to Portland after Pavement broke up and that’s where he met the lady he’d get married to. Craving a touch and being affected by someone’s movements. People in love experience that, right? “Tear you off”… maybe it’s referring to something a lil’ naughty. I also like to think this song has some additional importance, because a slowed down version of it arrives as a hidden moment after last track ‘Deado’. Always wanted to know why it’s there. Only SM will know.
