Stephen Malkmus' loftier musical intentions surfaced in 1995 when he christened Pavement's fourth album Wowee Zowee, a lovingly misspelled tribute to an early Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention song. With the textural oddity of the work itself, Malkmus served notice that quirky, hooky indie-rock greatness no longer satisfied his boundless creative appetite. From then on, through the end of Pavement and into his eclectic solo career, Malkmus began to compose psychedelic operettas resembling a twisted collaboration between Zappa and Ray Davies.

On Face the Truth, his third solo album, Malkmus synthesizes all of his musical guises-smoldering crooner, quirky deconstructionist, swaggering guitar wrangler, pop visionary-into a single persona, but not a single sound. Face the Truth is a largely solo basement project with only nominal help from the Jicks, his post-Pavement band, and Malkmus explores any and all avenues. "It Kills" wouldn't sound out of place on a Shins set list with its dissonant Beatles-pop-meets-Gary-Lucas-art-skronk-blues hybrid, and "I've Hardly Been" tangos like Beck with Tom Waits at his console and Captain Beefheart in his soul while Malkmus shares his philosophical bent ("The fallacy of selflessness, the friendship etiquette/ Normal is weirder than you'd care to admit"). Whether offering avant cosmic funk ("Kindling for the Master"), Eno-laced '80s synth pop ("Pencil Rot"), gently appointed Americana ("Freeze the Saints"), or full bore psychedelic guitar rock with a lo-fi spin ("No More Shoes"), Malkmus approaches his material with a typically skewed delight and without a speck of ironic distance.