Review:

on 2011-08-31 CharlesMartel Said:

Well, I suppose there is hope for me yet. After all, having listened to Black Frank's singing often enough on this album I can only conclude that if he can do it so can I. So watch out, the tuneless out-of-key front man is alive and well. Indeed, he is writing this review. But in all seriousness, I do not really understand how a band fronted by someone who has such obvious difficulty holding a key, can have such a high reputation on this board - or anywhere for that matter.

The Pixies rather passed me by when they were at their height. Part of the problem was that I was not in a location where the Pixies would have ever made any impression on the music scene. Part of the problem was that I was just entering my musical hiatus when this album rose to prominence. But part of the problem is that the Pixies were one of those bands which seemed to have an appeal to an American audience, without actually registering on my (parochial and narrow?) British perspective. By the time I finally got round to the Pixies, their heyday had passed over ten years before.

In fact, this album is one of those highly rated albums which somehow escapes me. Actually, that is a bit unfair. To be honest, I like it in some places. However, in other places I find it irritating. My first impression  and one which has stayed with me all this time is that overall it is not the classic which some have built it up to be. Take a song like "Crackity Jones". At less than a minute and a half, it is hardly worth the effort, in oh so many ways. It is puerile and short - so leave it off the album altogether. No one is going to miss it. It is like a joke which didn't quite make it.

But then we get to the real Pixies stuff. "Debaser" starts the album off and carries with it that hint of menace and meaningfulness which is so often the band's hallmark. To make sure the point hits home it is followed up with "Wave of Mutilation" and "Gouge Away" which are very much in the same vein. Yet there is also some stuff here which carries with it a hint of something deeper. "No.13 Baby" and "There Goes My Gun" are less on the levity more on the gravity.

Yet my personal favourite remains "Here Comes Your Man". Now if this isn't a tongue in cheek dig at the Velvet Underground then I genuinely have no clue. It even seems to replicate, with a distinct late eighties production overtone, the sort of twanging guitars which were so characteristic of the late sixties. In spite of the fact that it may have been prepared with the levity in mind, it comes across as an original and genuine musical moment.

In short, while I am not going to argue that is the best album of its year, I am not going to argue that it is not. I can of course see its importance in terms of the influence it had on what came later - the Pixies trademark quiet-loud-quiet format of production was something which was a direct influence on Nirvana and shoegazers like Ride and Catherine Wheel and persists to this day with a number of indie bands on the scene now. You will have to make up your own mind on this one, but from time to time the moment just takes me and I listen to it again, just to remind me that life is not always so deadly bloody serious.
Rating: 7/10

Review:

on 2008-03-29 DarkGlasses Said:

I am a huge fan of this album. Describing it as anything less than a definitive classic of the punk and alternative era would be doing it a huge insult. Black Francis and Kim Deal were still on good terms, and inspiration seems readily available and never contrived on this album. The songs on this CD are consistantly rich, completely original, and never defying their roots. Not once overtly art-farty but always a thorough musical experience. It's a classic musical offering from a dynamite band.

My chosen tracks are:Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Debaser. 10/10
Not Rated