Mirror Traffic finds Stephen Malkmus and Beck collaborating for the first time. Luckily, this pairing offers up an easy album that lets up on overdone guitar work and returns Malkmus & the Jicks to a summery affair of distortion-fuled pop tunes. While Beck’s influence is most obviously heard on “No One Is (As I Are Be),” for the most part he takes a backseat to the Pavement front man’s sonic mastery. Standout track “Tigers” is a peppy attention grabber, yet much of the rest of the album brings back the jammy feel of previous Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks output, such as the guitar pileup featured on “Spazz”. Few songwriters are as capable as Malkmus when it comes to succeeding in a variety of formats through an alt-rock filter, and Mirror Traffic is another shining example.
 "Mirror Traffic")
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