THE original left fielder shows no signs of heading for the middle of the road.

This inventive record is full of interesting touches, and lyrics that will leave you reeling in amused bewilderment. Malkmus, the leading light of Pavement, is a master at angular, inventive guitar tunes - lately hijacked and made popular by Franz Ferdinand. Where Face The Truth succeeds, it does so with a gusto of fresh air. Baby C'Mon and the heroic No More Shoes are the standouts, which is unfortunately easy enough to do on an album beset by songs that sound interesting but have little below the surface. Some mistakenly call Malkmus the indie Frank Zappa, but there is more talent here in flashes than most newcomers can ever muster - the painful truth.

Updated: 08:55 Thursday, July 28, 2005