Slanted and Enchanted

Most of it was recorded on 16-track at Louder Than You Think from 13 to 20 January 1991, with Here cut separately in Brooklyn the previous Christmas Eve. Malkmus sang and played guitar, Kannberg played bass and guitar and sang Two States, and Young played drums: it is the only Pavement album with him. Three songs, among them Conduit for Sale!, use the same DADABE tuning. The title comes from Emily Dickinson's line about telling the truth slant, and the back cover calls it S + E '91.

It reached 72 in the UK and had sold around 150,000 copies by 2007. Pitchfork ranked it third of the 1990s in 1999, Blender named it the greatest indie-rock album ever in 2007, and it sits on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums. Writing in 2025, Pitchfork's Mike Powell heard its noise as a product of distance or age rather than something corrosive. Luxe & Reduxe (2002) expanded it to 48 tracks with B-sides, outtakes, John Peel sessions and a 1992 Brixton Academy set, and a 30th anniversary edition in 2022 added a cassette of 15 demos.