The Boston band Pixies (note: not ‘The’ Pixies, there is no article here) were responsible for a lot, not least the sound of more or less scratchy, jangly indie band you listened to in the ’90s. Nirvana in particular owed the group a serious debt, as their singer Kurt Cobain stated: he even used Pixies producer Steve Albini for his own third album.
The secret behind Pixies' music, at least on their Surfer Rosa, the 1988 debut album we’re discussing here, was that the songs’ abrasive textures rested on real pop melodies that you could hum in the bath while still rocking out.
The guitars were often heavyweight and the bass prominent, but the songs - whether sung by guitarist Frank ‘Black Francis' Black or bassist Kim Deal - were still catchy as hell. The overall vibe was anarchic and a little chaotic, with Albini’s sympathetic production making you feel as though you were in the group’s rehearsal room with them. For example, you can hear the untrained singers actually gasping for breath during the song River Euphrates: that's how real this album was.
This all allowed the songs to ring through with real emotion. Gigantic, the cut for which Deal - and possibly the band in general - is best known, is at heart a sweet love song, while Where Is My Mind? lies somewhere between an acoustic whimsy (Radiohead’s Nice Dream comes to mind) and an arena anthem made up of layers of drone guitar. Then there’s Break My Body, a classic album-opener of its era: in this single song, much of the band’s ethos appears, from guitar tracks that don’t quite match up - and are proud of it - to a super-live drum and bass sound. It’s all here.
Throughout the iconic LP, the band don’t neglect their songwriting dynamics, building the songs and allowing them to fall again. In doing so, Pixies amassed a fanbase that is enduring to this day, even though the group currently tours and records with a revised line-up (Deal left the band in 2013, replaced briefly by Kim Shattuck in 2013 and then with Paz Lenchantin from 2014). Few bands can match their legacy.
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