Traditional Techniques is a solo album by American musician
Stephen Malkmus, the fourth album credited to Malkmus and the second to not feature his band
the Jicks. It is the ninth project in Malkmus's career since
Pavement disbanded, and the fourteenth album released in his career. It was released on March 6, 2020, by
Matador Records and
Domino Recording Company.[1][2]
Background and recording
Malkmus conceived the idea for Traditional Techniques during the recording of Sparkle Hard.[3] According to a press release, the concept gained traction and became a fully realized album in a matter of weeks.[4] Recording of the album took place in
Portland, Oregon, at Halfling Studio. The album was produced by
Chris Funk of
The Decemberists and features guitarist
Matt Sweeney and musician
Qais Essar.[5]
Traditional Techniques received positive reviews from music critics. Many critics praised Malkmus' foray into
folk music. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 80, based on eighteen reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[6]
Writing for Loud and Quiet, Sam Walton gave the album a positive review, praising it as "an expertly written and performed exploration of muted psych-rock and various strands of folk music".[11]
Robert Christgau gave the album a
two-star honorable mention in his
Substack-published "Consumer Guide" column, highlighting the songs "Xian Man" and "Cash Up" while writing in summation: "It’s more than cool, as it had better be, that he’s matured from willfully acerbic to willingly pretty, but he’s too smart not to know in the heart he’s proud to have that while acerbic feeds on chaos, pretty is better off explaining itself".[17]