After 17 years as a solo artist, Stephen Malkmus still has the ability to delight, if perhaps not outright surprise, his audience. Sparkle Hard is at once his most sonically adventurous and structurally tight set of music in over a decade and easily stands among his most rewarding work with the Jicks. Since leaving Pavement, Malkmus has always favored low-key consistency over wild experimentation, but when the results are this good, you can't really blame him.An album review by Tyler Clark.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy