Terror Twilight is the fifth and final studio album by the American indie rock band Pavement. It was released on June 8, 1999, on Matador Records in the US and Domino Recording Company in the UK.
Terror Twilight was produced by Nigel Godrich, who hoped to create a "straighter" album and bring Pavement to a wider audience. He and the band disagreed over some choices, and the songwriter, Stephen Malkmus, later expressed dissatisfaction with the album. It received positive reviews. After finishing the tour for the album, Pavement disbanded. In 2022, Matador released an expanded reissue, Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal.
Background and recording
Terror Twilight was produced by the British producer Nigel Godrich, who had gained fame for his work with Radiohead, Beck and R.E.M. Godrich, a Pavement fan, accepted the job without having met the band or seen them perform. According to the songwriter, Stephen Malkmus, Godrich asked no fee, asking only for royalties. However, Malkmus said: "We paid for the studio time, of course, which started to get expensive. Because [Godrich] had his own, uh, standards."
The group began work in Sonic Youth's studio in lower Manhattan, New York. Godrich mixed the album at Mayfair Studios.
At these shows, Malkmus played electric guitar and sang along with home demo recordings of the songs. The style of the recordings was similar to those found on the compilation At Home With the Groovebox ("Robyn Turns 26" and "Watch Out!"), the B-sides of the "Spit on a Stranger" single ("Rooftop Gambler" and "The Porpoise And The Hand Grenade"), and the demo version of "Major Leagues" found on the Major Leagues EP.
"The Hexx" was a quieter, slowed-down version of a discordant jam that was played extensively on the Brighten The Corners tour. Pavement had recorded a faster, louder version during the Brighten The Corners sessions—in fact, at one point "The Hexx" was to have been the opening track on that album. This recording was edited, retitled "...And Then" and issued as the vinyl B-side to "Spit on a Stranger". The original, full-length recording can be found on Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition. The single edit also appears among eight bonus tracks on the vinyl incarnation of the Creedence edition. "Folk Jam", as the name suggests, sees the band jam around a single chord for nearly four minutes and was inspired by the folk rock band Fairport Convention.
The original cover art for Terror Twilight lists the final track, "Carrot Rope," as "...And Carrot Rope." This alternate song title was revived for the 2010 Record Store Day version of Quarantine the Past, even though the song was the fifth track on side one.
Initial UK copies of the album came with a bonus CD-ROM which contained the whole album with a brief track-by-track commentary; film of Stephen Malkmus writing this – and calling for the help of his fellow band members in doing so – can be seen on the Slow Century DVD. The disc also contained the videos for "Stereo" and "Shady Lane" from their previous album Brighten the Corners and a home movie segment containing some footage also seen in the Slow Century DVD.
Nastanovich came up with the title, and said it described the period between dusk and sunset when most traffic accidents occur, as only half of drivers switch on their headlights. His original suggestion was Farewell Horizontal, but he dismissed this as "there was no way I was going to be on the Farewell Horizontal tour for the next year". During the final concert of the tour, at Brixton Academy in London on November 20, 1999, Malkmus had a pair of handcuffs attached to his microphone stand and told the audience: "These symbolize what it's like being in a band all these years." About two weeks later, a spokesperson for their record label told NME that Pavement had "retired for the foreseeable future". In 2017, Malkmus described Terror Twilight as "a real classic-rock overproduced $100,000 record. With that much money you should be able to make something good. We made some things that weren't as good as they could've been."
Track listing
Personnel
Pavement
- Stephen Malkmus – vocals, guitar
- Bob Nastanovich – percussion, keyboards
- Scott Kannberg – vocals, guitar
- Steve West – drums, percussion
- Mark Ibold – bass, vocals
Additional musicians
- Dominic Murcott – drums on "Major Leagues" and "Carrot Rope"
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Bibliography
- Jovanovic, Rob (2004). Perfect Sound Forever: The Story of Pavement. (Boston) Justin, Charles & Co. .