My Top 1000 Songs #991: Here

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I know, we just had some Pavement here last week, and do we really need a third song from 1992's Slanted & Enchanted? But we're rapidly closing in on the end of this 1000-day journey (will there be another 1000 songs to follow? Nobody's asking!), and "Here" was just begging for some love.

Certainly on the shortlist for one of the band's prettiest tracks--a soothing interlude on the often raging Slanted, but works at least as well as a stand-alone ballad when you're in the mood for something lovely and enchanting yet still highlighting Stephen Malkmus' unique edge. The cryptically profound lyrics feel like an endless barrage of unforgettable couplets (I still find it impossible to put on a suit without thinking "I was dressed for success, but success it never comes"); throw in a bit of falsetto, a hypnotic bassline...the earliest revelation that Pavement were a lot more than catchy post-Fall indie rock.

Live 2022:

Grandaddy live cover:

Soccer Mommy cover:

Tindersticks cover: