I can’t believe it’s been eleven-and-a-half years since Pavement’s Brighten the Corners was released. I was a fifteen-year-old brat who knew a lot less than I thought I did, working my first record store gig at a Newbury Comics in Shrewsbury, MA. It only took one or two listens for me to know it was a special little set of music.

Today the album is being re-issued to celebrate it’s “tenth anniversary” with a wealth of out-takes, b-sides and live tracks. I’m excited and more than a little nostalgic. BTC opened up doors for me, and its sentimental value is up there. A lot of purists and posers will tell you the first three Pavement records blow it out of the water, and while that is a bit an overstatement, those first three are perfection whereas Brighten the Corners dips. However, it is great. It was Pavement’s most streamlined effort at that point, but it wasn’t without its ingenious eccentricities and high-caliber songwriting.

I’m not going to go on and on about it. Simply put, it’s a wonderful album, the remastering job is fantastic, and the extra material is invaluable to even the most casual Pavement fan. Enjoy this one, because if you’re like me, you don’t really give a toss about the inevitable final Pavement reissue for Terror Twilight. Blech.