Pavement is too smart to be slack.
Always has been. Its music has evolved through its influences from naive mimicking to challenging, uncharted waters. The thing is is that Pavement has always been a jam rock band. Whenever someone mentions the word 'jam' near the word 'rock' my skin usually crawls and my face contorts, but come on, some bands have done it well. Ahh, you say, but those are 'classic rock' bands.