#151: Mirror Traffic

Ranking The "250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far" (2025)

In 2025, Rolling Stone released their list of “250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far.” I am working my way though the list, from #250 to #1, reviewing each. It’s a fascinating opportunity to revisit old favourites, and maybe discover new ones.

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, 2011

Fifteen years after its release, I realize now that this is the album that I was hoping would have been made by Stephen Malkmus’s former band; I eschewed The Jicks as inferior at the time, but it’s Malkmus all along who was making the appropriate follow ups to Pavement after their initial dissolution in 2000.

Mirror Traffic brings everything together. Malkmus seems loose and free, his lyrical wanderings going much farther than even Pavement’s last studio album Terror Twilight. Vocally, he’s at his most Malkmus-like; his range is limited but he’s best when he employs an almost conversational approach, inviting Velvet Underground comparisons on more than one occasion.

The guitar licks on the best songs are memorable: lead track “Tigers” kicks off the track with an uptempo jam, jangly guitar and singalong chorus. “Senator” is a brilliant high-octane indictment of (maybe) political corruption. This track also showcases Jicks drummer Janet Weiss at her best, capturing her best performance of the album and showing flashes of Sleater-Kinney brilliance (on the rest of the album, the percussion is a little more serviceable, in my opinion, instead of taking advantage of Weiss’s punk chops).

The rest of the album settles into Malkmus’s preferred mid-tempo, contemplative style. “Brain Gallup” is fantastic, and “Asking Price” and “Stick Figures In Love” are excellent indie power pop songs. Later on, “Forever 28” is another highlight.

Overall, Mirror Traffic is Generation X magic. Malkmus was 45 at the time and makes an album that ages well, capturing the indie spirit of his youth but also the sophistication gained from experience, pushing against the norms while also not alienating anyone. The production work by Beck is an indicator, keeping Malkmus within an indie pop range without betraying his roots. 15 years later, it’s a perfectly reasonable album for former indie punks to enjoy while picking up kids or grandkids from school. As Malkmus would say, “I rip into my lemon trifle / I’m too old to play capture the flag”

I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It’s catchy and delightful, and reminds me enough of Pavement to imagine what they might have sounded like had they continued unfettered.