Sparkle Hard is the seventh studio album by American indie rock band Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, released on May 18, 2018, by Matador Records and Domino Records. It reached #174 on the Billboard 200 charts, and peaked at #64 on the Official UK Charts.
Critical reception
Sparkle Hard was critically acclaimed upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 84, based on 26 reviews. Jem Aswad of Variety said that "With nary a weak track, Sparkle Hard finds Malkmus hitting a new peak nearly 30 years into his career."
Several publications named the album one of the best of 2018, including: Rolling Stone, Spin, Q, Uncut, Mojo, Under the Radar, and Consequence of Sound.
Track listing
Personnel
Stephen Malkmus – vocals, songwriting, guitar, mellotron, piano, Memorymoog, bass Joanna Bolme – bass, backing vocals Mike Clark – keyboards, JUNO synthesizer Jake Morris – drums, backing vocals, percussion Chris Funk – production, acoustic slide guitar Kim Gordon – vocals Kyleen King – strings Luke Price – fiddle JJ Golden – lacquer cut Adam Lee – recording, mixing Orion Landau – design James Rexroad – photography
References