The Album Review Club - *** Christmas Break Playlist (next album 7/1/26) ***

Did anyone else on here see Pixies at the International 2 on Plymouth Grove in 1988?

Set list is linked below:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pixies/1988/international-ii-manchester-england-5bd57bd8.html

It was a great gig and they were a great live band. The International 1 and 2 were great venues and I saw loads of bands there around that time. Iggy Pop also played there and was great.

In those days going to a gig cost about the same as buying an album - different world to today.
 
Hey, I've been trying to meet you.. but what's that floating in the water?

Kind of sums up my experience of this album. Tried, just about to really get into it, and it throws up something distracting. Almost an album of two halves, mixed about. I felt the later part of the album came more into its own.

I'll put aside the debate on how pioneer or influential it was, it is a bit of an uneccessary burden and distraction. Yes, I can certainly see that some of the bass and drums spells would have been immitated by Nirvana, who lets face it are the ultimate rip-off merchants. I can also see elements of their progressions in Blackened Sky, one of my all time favourite albums. So I was earlier maybe a bit harsh in arguing the claim the album was a pre-cursor to Grunge. As a whole, that claim is some way off, but in parts it is probably true. Personally I can see this album having more of an influence on the brit-pop wave, and bands like Radiohead (wash my mouth out, sorry Fog) etc. Either way, takes nothing away from the album itself.

Hey, is for me the best song on the album. Why have I not listened to that before. Had it on repeat a few times, grown to absolutely love it now. Has that tone of that song of theirs that was in Fight Club, it is going straight into my liked library. On the other hand, I can't fucking stand Here Comes your Man, genuinely now hate that song. It is, for me, the yellow submarine of this album.

If this was an album entirely of songs like Tame, I Bleed, Monkey, Hey, Gauge Away, it would easily be an 8 for me. If it was an album of all the other songs, probably a 4-5 at most. So I guess somewhere in the middle, a solid 6 is about fair.

Enjoyed the experience, and the discussions it prompted. Listened to their first album as a bonus, and a good chunk of their latest released only last year. They still have 'it', and some surprisingly good stuff on there ( surprising only in the sense that bands from that era imo struggle to meet expectation with their new material). And plenty of their hits to find, outwith the whole albums. Cheers GD.
 
Doolittle – The Pixies

In my mind, The Pixies have always been shouty old rubbish noise merchants, so I’m happy to report that it is far more melodic than I was led to believe. There are some tracks that are indeed shouty old rubbish, but that’s more the vocals and the music is mostly listenable throughout.

In fact, some of the quirky music reminded me as much of Wilco as Nirvana. The problem is that many of the tracks do indeed feature what, for want of a better term, are weird vocal tics.

“No. 13 Baby” is a great example of this – the bass, rhythm and solo are really catchy, but the vocals do nothing at all for this track.

I must have heard at least some of this before because the lyric “un chien andalusia" in “Debaser” is familiar to me. Despite the screeching on parts of this, I actually enjoyed this one – it’s got a nice energy and anthemic chorus.

Along with this, “Here Comes Your Man” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven” are the best tracks, and “Silver” has a nice Western theme but feels like more of a snippet from a soundtrack than a fully realised song.

“Wave of Mutilation”, “La La Love You”, “There Goes My Gun”, and “Hey” aren’t bad, but the remainder are just too weird for me, I’m afraid.

On “Tame”, the heavy breathing is very odd, plus there’s plenty of unintelligible screeching. On “I Bleed”, at one point he sounds like Adam Driver singing backing vocals on “Please, Mr Kennedy” in the Inside Llewyn Davis film. That was a highlight in the film, but not here.

As for “Dead”, well, it’s just plain odd.

On my first listen, I was just relieved that it wasn’t all industrial noise an screeching, but the 2nd and 3rd listens left me with the feeling that whilst I can see some loving this, there’s not enough in here for me, but worth a 6/10.

As a side note I’ve got a few albums produced by Gil Norton (by Counting Crows and Del Amitri) and some tracks on best ofs by The Triffids and Foo Fighters.
 
Coatigan said:
Hey, I've been trying to meet you.. but what's that floating in the water?

Kind of sums up my experience of this album. Tried, just about to really get into it, and it throws up something distracting. Almost an album of two halves, mixed about. I felt the later part of the album came more into its own.

I'll put aside the debate on how pioneer or influential it was, it is a bit of an uneccessary burden and distraction. Yes, I can certainly see that some of the bass and drums spells would have been immitated by Nirvana, who lets face it are the ultimate rip-off merchants. I can also see elements of their progressions in Blackened Sky, one of my all time favourite albums. So I was earlier maybe a bit harsh in arguing the claim the album was a pre-cursor to Grunge. As a whole, that claim is some way off, but in parts it is probably true. Personally I can see this album having more of an influence on the brit-pop wave, and bands like Radiohead (wash my mouth out, sorry Fog) etc. Either way, takes nothing away from the album itself.

Hey, is for me the best song on the album. Why have I not listened to that before. Had it on repeat a few times, grown to absolutely love it now. Has that tone of that song of theirs that was in Fight Club, it is going straight into my liked library. On the other hand, I can't fucking stand Here Comes your Man, genuinely now hate that song. It is, for me, the yellow submarine of this album.

If this was an album entirely of songs like Tame, I Bleed, Monkey, Hey, Gauge Away, it would easily be an 8 for me. If it was an album of all the other songs, probably a 4-5 at most. So I guess somewhere in the middle, a solid 6 is about fair.

Enjoyed the experience, and the discussions it prompted. Listened to their first album as a bonus, and a good chunk of their latest released only last year. They still have 'it', and some surprisingly good stuff on there ( surprising only in the sense that bands from that era imo struggle to meet expectation with their new material). And plenty of their hits to find, outwith the whole albums. Cheers GD.
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Good call on Blackened Sky - it nearly made the cut instead of Doolittle, but we’d done a Biff album so I went different. Great album though, maybe one for the future.
I like the new offering Doggerel as well, there are a few really good tunes on there. Live, Pixies still have it. The combo of acoustic and lead between Black Francis and Joey Santiago works great imho.
 
RobMCFC said:
Doolittle – The Pixies

In my mind, The Pixies have always been shouty old rubbish noise merchants, so I’m happy to report that it is far more melodic than I was led to believe. There are some tracks that are indeed shouty old rubbish, but that’s more the vocals and the music is mostly listenable throughout.

In fact, some of the quirky music reminded me as much of Wilco as Nirvana. The problem is that many of the tracks do indeed feature what, for want of a better term, are weird vocal tics.

“No. 13 Baby” is a great example of this – the bass, rhythm and solo are really catchy, but the vocals do nothing at all for this track.

I must have heard at least some of this before because the lyric “un chien andalusia" in “Debaser” is familiar to me. Despite the screeching on parts of this, I actually enjoyed this one – it’s got a nice energy and anthemic chorus.

Along with this, “Here Comes Your Man” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven” are the best tracks, and “Silver” has a nice Western theme but feels like more of a snippet from a soundtrack than a fully realised song.

“Wave of Mutilation”, “La La Love You”, “There Goes My Gun”, and “Hey” aren’t bad, but the remainder are just too weird for me, I’m afraid.

On “Tame”, the heavy breathing is very odd, plus there’s plenty of unintelligible screeching. On “I Bleed”, at one point he sounds like Adam Driver singing backing vocals on “Please, Mr Kennedy” in the Inside Llewyn Davis film. That was a highlight in the film, but not here.

As for “Dead”, well, it’s just plain odd.

On my first listen, I was just relieved that it wasn’t all industrial noise an screeching, but the 2nd and 3rd listens left me with the feeling that whilst I can see some loving this, there’s not enough in here for me, but worth a 6/10.

As a side note I’ve got a few albums produced by Gil Norton (by Counting Crows and Del Amitri) and some tracks on best ofs by The Triffids and Foo Fighters.
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Almost won you round then ;)
 
I like quite a few lead vocalists that are not singers but am starting to realise my biggest problem with The Pixies may well be Black Francis.
His anti-singing works well on some songs but wears thin and actually grates and annoys on others.
I also have found that there is not enough going on by the band to differentiate between a lot on the album. It all gets a bit samey.
I like parts but like Foggy suggested, I think I’d be happier listening to a best of compilation.

I can see the attraction for some people and for a genre or even what this band in particular are trying to achieve, I do get it, but prefer the execution of the goal by other bands better.

I was thinking a 5. It seems a bit mean, so maybe I’ll extend to a 6.

One thing I’ve observed recently is that how I react to the album of the week can be influenced by the quality of the other ‘playlist’ thread.
I really preferred that this week and found myself hanging onto the random stuff thrown up after it rather than wanting to return to The Pixies.

Perhaps that’s a problem.
 
GornikDaze said:
Almost won you round then ;)
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I think Eamo has hit the nail on the head - it's the anti-singing that spoils it for me.

We've had plenty of comments on here about Dylan or Springsteen not being able to sing, but the key difference is that they are delivering their words to the best of their ability in a style that suits them. They may not have perfect voices, but you can (mostly) heard their words, which of course is a probably the most important part of their appeal.

In this case, Black Francis (or is it Frank Black?) spends about a third of the album screeching. Not artists I have ever listened to sells me on screeching.

The music isn't bad at all a lot of the time.
 
I Bleed, Here Comes Your Man and the last three tracks are the only ones I could bear to listen to three times. The rest of it is just an unintelligible racket as far as I’m concerned with no merit whatsoever and the vocalist is dreadful. However I accept I am an FOC and this whole genre never appealed to me at the time and subsequently completely passed me by.
For me it’s a 2/10.
 
My wife, who was a fan of the Pixies back in the day got very excited last night when I casually mentioned I was having to listen to and review this. She insisted I play some when we were in bed but then proceeded to tell me which were the "good" and which were the "bad" tracks which seems to echo a lot of what has been said on here.

I'm still making my mind up about it. I'm not averse to singers who aren't classically good, heaven knows there's enough of them, but I also struggle at times to get what Black Francis is trying to achieve with his delivery. The first 30 seconds of this album set the tone, a great musical intro and then a terrible noise from the singer.

Not all as bad though. We're having a trip out tomorrow and this will be on in the car but I suspect I might have to control my wife's very modern urge to either skip tracks or turn up the "good" ones to an unlistenable volume.
 
RobMCFC said:
I think Eamo has hit the nail on the head - it's the anti-singing that spoils it for me.

We've had plenty of comments on here about Dylan or Springsteen not being able to sing, but the key difference is that they are delivering their words to the best of their ability in a style that suits them. They may not have perfect voices, but you can (mostly) heard their words, which of course is a probably the most important part of their appeal.

In this case, Black Francis (or is it Frank Black?) spends about a third of the album screeching. Not artists I have ever listened to sells me on screeching.

The music isn't bad at all a lot of the time.
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Not sure I can agree with that comparison. Dylan, Springsteen are making music that typically relies on singing. Pixies are coming off the back of a punk movement that was about expression more than singing. It is about the mood and the attitude, etc. etc. The issue with Pixies though to an extent is they don't follow through enough maybe.

Of all the things that I didn't take to on this album, I have to say the signing wasn't one of them. But then I maybe like more bands less constrained by conventional metrics.
 
Coatigan said:
Not sure I can agree with that comparison. Dylan, Springsteen are making music that typically relies on singing. Pixies are coming off the back of a punk movement that was about expression more than singing. It is about the mood and the attitude, etc. etc. The issue with Pixies though to an extent is they don't follow through enough maybe.

Of all the things that I didn't take to on this album, I have to say the signing wasn't one of them. But then I maybe like more bands less constrained by conventional metrics.
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With a lot of bands that have vocalists rather than singers I find the whole song lifted by the band. I mean David Byrne isn’t the best of singers but everything by the band around him elevates the sound as much as him.

I just think when The Pixies get it right it’s very good but not often enough if this album is the evidence. It didn’t hold my interest after a few listens. It began to sound the same.
 
Coatigan said:
Pixies are coming off the back of a punk movement ....
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That's probably the biggest issue for me.

I like music that comes from the source - stuff that evolved out or blues, jazz, country, rock & roll.
I just don't like stuff that is specifically written and performed for attitudes sake.
Punk sums all that up and is consequently one of my least favourite genres.

Having said that, there's enough in this album for me to appreciate .... just not the singing!
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
With a lot of bands that have vocalists rather than singers I find the whole song lifted by the band. I mean David Byrne isn’t the best of singers but everything by the band around him elevates the sound as much as him.

I just think when The Pixies get it right it’s very good but not often enough if this album is the evidence. It didn’t hold my interest after a few listens. It began to sound the same.
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I can agree with that.
 
RobMCFC said:
That's probably the biggest issue for me.

I like music that comes from the source - stuff that evolved out or blues, jazz, country, rock & roll.
I just don't like stuff that is specifically written and performed for attitudes sake.
Punk sums all that up and is consequently one of my least favourite genres.

Having said that, there's enough in this album for me to appreciate .... just not the singing!
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I don't really get that. Everything came from a source of some kind. Including Punk. and Rap.

It either moves me, or it doesn't. That's mostly what I base whether I like something or not.
 
Coatigan said:
I don't really get that. Everything came from a source of some kind. Including Punk. and Rap.

It either moves me, or it doesn't. That's mostly what I base whether I like something or not.
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Punk is more a bastardisation of what came before.

I could go on, but I won't because I know loads of people love it. I don't, let's just leave it there.

It's the source, not a source - I suppose that's an attitude too, but lovers of real music will know what I mean :)
 
RobMCFC said:
Punk is more a bastardisation of what came before.

I could go on, but I won't because I know loads of people love it. I don't, let's just leave it there.
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Yeah true, but so are many big genres. Including Americana. That's what keeps music evolving, establishing and then breaking norms. It is a good thing.

Incidentally punk, or pure punk as it came, is one that has had less effect on me than other genres that came as a consequence. But I fully appreciate its role in shaking up the scene that was getting quite stagnant.
 
So my 4th listen of Doolittle this week and I must admit I wax and wain about this album. The last few tracks are not particularly strong songs to me. The playing is often really quite simple but I like the rythm section. I'm a sucker for well defined bass and this is mixed way forward (did I get that right Rob/Foggy as I am far from expert in record production) and although it feels like I could probably play some of the lines myself after a little practice I still like how she accentuates the songs. 2/3 of the songs I like, others I don't. I do like their use of dynamics and for me that is what makes this record listenable and entertaining. I also like Black Francis/Francis Black sardonic sneering vocals even when he is mourning some bloody deceased ape or other (did I detect grit in there?).

As mentioned, I don't have much context with them. I have read that they are very influential to all sorts like Nirvana (hurray) and Radiohead (Boooooo) but that goes over my head somewhat as listening to them now, their sound, to me, is familiar from other bands that existed around the same period. Because in the main I like it, its a 6/10 where if I had asked to score when I first saw it chosen it would have been 2 or 3.

Thanks for putting it forward @GornikDaze it was a fine choice.
 
GornikDaze said:
Good call on Blackened Sky - it nearly made the cut instead of Doolittle, but we’d done a Biff album so I went different. Great album though, maybe one for the future.
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If you haven't already, have a listen to the first two volumes of The Emo Diaries.
All 12 volumes are great compilations. But the first 2 in particular, should take you right back to the mood of the album.
 
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