ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Pixies – Indie Cindy
The once great Pixies are back with a brand new album, but are they so great anymore?
Album Reviews | Released
Pixies – Indie CIndy
(Pixiesmusic)
3 out of 5
Over two decades has passed since the release of the ‘final’ Pixies album, Trompe le Monde in 1991. While the band may be one of the most beloved, throughout the bands internal tapestry however this feeling has not been as mutual. Producing what is arguably one of the most innovative debut albums of its time – Come On Pilgrim of 1987 – they became fabled for outstanding new alt rock and the unmistakable surface glow of the vocal back and forth from frontman Black Francis and bassist Kim Deal, though dire hate resided from the frontman for the latter. This was due to Deal – found through a newspaper ad – managing to make something quite special for a bassist, becoming recognisable.
With jealousy from Francis on Deal, Pixies erupted into one of the messiest break ups in rock history. Yet instead of burning out in a burst of memorable 1991 colours, Pixies have smouldered into the smog of reunion tours, starting last year and now return to heritage rock reform with their new sixth album Indie Cindy.
An album produced in 2014 should exude a sense of majesty, honed by the foundations of great releases, bands and artists that have formed a music scene that is stronger than ever before – we mean artistry not money, don’t be getting excited ‘there is no money in the music industry’, apparently. Indie Cindy however – produced on the bands own independent imprint Pixiesmusic – makes no great strides in influential movements and merely rehashes Pixies five past ventures with the addition of the Deal replacement, Paz Lenchantin.
Even the title feels lazy – Indie Cindy – with the name check of a genre they helped define in Boston streets, the actual reality is that this is less of a sweet tooth satisfier and more of an extra layer of an everlasting gobstopper. Of course there is everything here a Pixies fan could ever ask for, and bound to be their love heart in the Haribo Starmix.
Album opener What Goes Boom kick-starts with furious punked up metal riffage from Joey Santiago – completely reminiscent of their debut – while Francis’ grunged croons cocoon the collective in the penetrative subtlety of Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. The 90s surf psych of Bossanova is returned to in great form with Green And Blue, and the super wacked out Magdalena 318 sees Pixies at possibly the most cohesive they have ever been.
Not all of the sounds are revisited so well however. Badboy gets a head scratching outing into semi-danceable industrial rock of Trent Reznor on a bad day, while Blue Eyed Hexe sees this Pixies heritage rock reformation become an affirmation of one for the dads, with Francis and Santiago getting their schoolboy on with a knee jiving rhythm robbed right off the back of Angus Young.
Indie Candy is by no means a bad album, Pixies have returned refreshed and clearly raring for a redistribution of their signature dust that was so damn addictive before. The LP clings to the sounds that – most of – the band treasured in their heyday. The vibe that bounces through its reverberations mirror the excitement of the creation of a brand new movement, that Pixies found years ago. The reality is that with the final product it’s all just a feeling, no boundaries broken here, and with the Deal edge missing it leaves this square more of a triangle.
David Sullivan
