Terror Twilight

Nigel Godrich, who had worked with Radiohead, Beck and R.E.M., took the job without having met the band. He wanted an album that stood up straighter and might reach people put off by the beautiful sloppiness of other Pavement records. Work began in Sonic Youth's studio in lower Manhattan and moved to RPM Studios near Washington Square Park, where Malkmus estimated three quarters of the album was recorded. Overdubbing and editing took place in London at RAK Studios and at Godrich's Shebang, and he mixed it at Mayfair Studios. A note on the release says the album was conceived in Portland, Oregon, rehearsed in Lexington, Virginia, and put on tape between June and December 1998 in New York and London.

Dominic Murcott of the High Llamas played drums on Major Leagues and Carrot Rope, and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood added harmonica to Platform Blues and Billie. Nastanovich said Godrich asked for more takes than the band was used to. Kannberg called it the hardest Pavement record to make, and was unhappy that Malkmus did not want to work on his songs. Godrich wanted to open with Platform Blues and close with Spit on a Stranger, while the band preferred an easier opener. Nastanovich came up with the title, which describes the stretch between dusk and sunset when most traffic accidents happen, and had first suggested Farewell Horizontal.

It came out on 8 June 1999. Malkmus later criticized it, calling it in 2015 the accidental child of the catalog, while Godrich said in 2020 that he loved the album. After Coachella that year Malkmus told the others he did not want to continue, and the last show of the tour, at Brixton Academy in London on 20 November 1999, saw Malkmus with a pair of handcuffs attached to his microphone stand. Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal followed in April 2022 with 28 previously unreleased tracks, and its vinyl edition uses the running order Godrich suggested.