Album: Doolittle
Artist: Pixies
Artist: Pixies
Born: Boston, Massachusetts
Released: April 1989
Genre: Indie Rock
Influenced: Nirvana, Grandaddy, Pavement, PJ Harvey, The Shins, TV On The Radio
One reason I don't consider myself a true Pixies fan is that the punk mayhem of their second album, Surfer Rosa, produced by Big Black's noise god Steve Albini, is not all that appealing to me. Undoubtedly, Surfer Rosa has its moments, as well as a fun and anarchic spirit, but I just can't fathom why it's so critically lauded. I've always preferred Doolittle and even the Pixies' fourth album, Bossanova, to Surfer Rosa (and certainly to Come On Pilgrim). The first Pixies song that I ever came across was Here Comes Your Man and, on hearing that, I got a false impression of the band; what I like about Doolittle is that it blends more melodic pop hooks with the band's noisy, edgy roots. Opening song Debaser is a good case in point. In the best Pixies songs, there's always a tension at work -- often between noisy and quiet, upbeat and sinister -- and Debaser opens with Kim Deal's clean bass notes (partly the influence of new producer Gil Norton) and Joey Santiago's sunny guitar riff, but beneath the pop sheen is Black Francis' screaming delivery. The lyrics are important in Pixies songs, just one reason why they're more essential American indie rockers than REM, for example, and in Debaser the reference is to the surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou, co-developed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalì and full of striking images of human debasement (severed hands, sliced eyeballs). Black Francis is playing a character to sinister effect, a manic sadist inspired by the film.
Here Comes Your Man, to keep the artistic references going, is like Picasso doing a beautiful landscape painting, with the Pixies showing they can do standard song structures and pop melodies as well as anyone (maybe better). Again, the video (the purposeful non sing-a-long) and the lyrics (about drifters waiting for a fix, of what I'm not sure) create a sense of dissonance. Tame is one of the songs that most obviously influenced Nirvana, its quiet/loud, calm/manic dynamic highly influential. PJ Harvey was also inspired by the song. I Bleed is in a similar vein and the beauty of Doolittle is how it contrasts this unique style of music with more straightforward rock songs, like Wave of Mutilation. Black Francis' whispered singing on Wave of Mutilation is really inspired, and the lyrics are again cryptic and dark. Monkey Gone To Heaven is, for me, hands-down the coolest track on the record. This song, more than any other, made the Pixies a cult success in Britain. Side 2 is perhaps not as consistently brilliant as the first, but I do like the shifting dynamics of Mr Grieves, the cheesy and tongue-in-cheek La La Love You, as well as the power of the final trio of tracks: Hey, Silver and Gouge Away. You can see the vast sprawl of this album's influence throughout 90s indie rock.
One reason I don't consider myself a true Pixies fan is that the punk mayhem of their second album, Surfer Rosa, produced by Big Black's noise god Steve Albini, is not all that appealing to me. Undoubtedly, Surfer Rosa has its moments, as well as a fun and anarchic spirit, but I just can't fathom why it's so critically lauded. I've always preferred Doolittle and even the Pixies' fourth album, Bossanova, to Surfer Rosa (and certainly to Come On Pilgrim). The first Pixies song that I ever came across was Here Comes Your Man and, on hearing that, I got a false impression of the band; what I like about Doolittle is that it blends more melodic pop hooks with the band's noisy, edgy roots. Opening song Debaser is a good case in point. In the best Pixies songs, there's always a tension at work -- often between noisy and quiet, upbeat and sinister -- and Debaser opens with Kim Deal's clean bass notes (partly the influence of new producer Gil Norton) and Joey Santiago's sunny guitar riff, but beneath the pop sheen is Black Francis' screaming delivery. The lyrics are important in Pixies songs, just one reason why they're more essential American indie rockers than REM, for example, and in Debaser the reference is to the surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou, co-developed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalì and full of striking images of human debasement (severed hands, sliced eyeballs). Black Francis is playing a character to sinister effect, a manic sadist inspired by the film.
Here Comes Your Man, to keep the artistic references going, is like Picasso doing a beautiful landscape painting, with the Pixies showing they can do standard song structures and pop melodies as well as anyone (maybe better). Again, the video (the purposeful non sing-a-long) and the lyrics (about drifters waiting for a fix, of what I'm not sure) create a sense of dissonance. Tame is one of the songs that most obviously influenced Nirvana, its quiet/loud, calm/manic dynamic highly influential. PJ Harvey was also inspired by the song. I Bleed is in a similar vein and the beauty of Doolittle is how it contrasts this unique style of music with more straightforward rock songs, like Wave of Mutilation. Black Francis' whispered singing on Wave of Mutilation is really inspired, and the lyrics are again cryptic and dark. Monkey Gone To Heaven is, for me, hands-down the coolest track on the record. This song, more than any other, made the Pixies a cult success in Britain. Side 2 is perhaps not as consistently brilliant as the first, but I do like the shifting dynamics of Mr Grieves, the cheesy and tongue-in-cheek La La Love You, as well as the power of the final trio of tracks: Hey, Silver and Gouge Away. You can see the vast sprawl of this album's influence throughout 90s indie rock.
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