Pixies - Surfer Rosa
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CD Details
Artist: PixiesEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Music Label: 4ad / Ada
Soundtracks:
- Bone Machine
- Break My Body
- Something Against You
- Broken Face
- Gigantic
- River Euphrates
- Where Is My Mind?
- Cactus
- Tony's Theme
- Oh My Golly
- You Fucking Die! I Said... [Hidden Track]
- Vamos
- I'm Amazed
- Brick Is Red
Music reviews of Surfer Rosa
Music Review: Where Were Their Minds?
Rating: 5 Stars
Like The Smiths, The Pixies never made a bad record. They may have made a few that didn't live up to the standards of their best albums, but the lesser efforts by either band (eg, "Meat Is Murder", "Trompe Le Monde") could have been any other band's greatest masterpiece. During the brief but amazing careers, neither band ever really had anything to prove. Except, perhaps, that they could deliver on the promise of their initial offering. While The Smiths second "proper" album may have slipped a bit from their debut (even though their second actual release didn't), The Pixies surged full-speed ahead with "Surfer Rosa", the full-length follow-up to their debut EP "Come On Pilgrim". (One then can't help but wonder, could the band follow up on a masterpiece? I think that we all know the answer to that one.)
"Surfer Rosa", all 33 minutes of it, is overstuffed with everything that made The Pixies creepy, unpredictable, and impossible to resist. The guitars are sometimes chainsaws, sometimes lasers, and sometimes surfboards. (Plus, there is that cool distorted James Brown riff in "Bone Machine", and the beginning of "Something Against You" sounds like a game show theme.) Frank Black's vocals are alternately shrieking and pensive, while Kim Deal's are a winsome counterpoint, and the lyrics are always at least a bit obscure, no matter who is singing them. Finally, David Lovering's thunderous drumming gives the songs an earthquake-like quality.
For all the truth that there is to how modern and groundbreaking The Pixies were, The Velvet Underground and especially The Stooges are the most obvious influences on this record . But as I said in a previous review (of The Strokes' "Is This It"), rock's greatest bands usually combine elements of the music that came before them, and breathe new life into it. Nowhere is The Pixies' ability to do this more obvious than on "Vamos", which answers the question of what a jam session between The Velvets and The Stooges would sound like (assuming, of course, that either Lou Reed or Iggy Pop could speak Spanish). Iggy Pop screams are all over the record - "Bone Machine", "Something Against You", "River Euphrates", "Tony's Theme", etc. And while there is genuine beauty in the mess of this music, one cannot help but be struck by the creepy lyrics. Three of the first four songs make some reference to bones, usually broken ones. Moreover, strange sexual references are also sprinkled throughout the record, eg, "I miss your kissin' and I miss your head", "He bought me a soda and tried to molest me in the parking lot", "There was this boy who had two children with his sisters", "We'll have our sons, they'll all be well hung". (Considering this, the name of their 1989 tour - "Sex and Death" - comes as less of a surprise.)
Like The Velvet Underground, The Pixies had their abrasive and softer sides, and were able to display both on a single record, and often within a single song. On "Surfer Rosa", the softer - but equally cryptic - side is evident in the pensive "Where Is My Mind?", the T. Rex-ish "Cactus", and Kim Deal's delectable song "Gigantic", an innocuous-sounding song about voyeurism. "Gigantic" always comes as a bit of a welcome relief, as Kim Deal's voice is beautiful and the song is so damn singable. It is every bit as significant to the album's quality as any of Frank Black's songs. (It's too bad that his unwillingness to record her songs lead to their acrimonious breakup, but he probably couldn't help but feel a bit threatened. And Frank Black doesn't seem like the type of person you want to piss off.)
From the tempo-defying opener to almost the very end, "Surfer Rosa" storms through your speakers like an aural blitzkrieg. I say "almost" because the final song, "Brick Is Red", is practically a throwaway, but it at least gives the listener the chance to catch his/her breath. This is probably one of the Top 5 American albums of the 80s, yet is inexplicably excluded - as are all Pixies albums - from MOJO's book of the greatest albums of all time. This has been partially remedied in the most recent editon with the inclusion of "Doolittle", but it certainly didn't have to be one or the other, so the continued absence of "Surfer Rosa" is still inexplicable.
All the same, it is hard to go wrong with any Pixies record. This happens to be the one that I like the best, and I highly recommend to, well, anyone who hasn't heard it.
Description of Surfer Rosa
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Before the Breeders and Frank Black, there was this Boston quartet, playing hardcore's rush and terseness against the acoustic grit and the minor-key flourish of Latin pop. Their first full-length album is their starkest, harsh and trebly, with the drums right in your face, and songs edited to eliminate any note that's not absolutely necessary. Singer Black Francis yelping away about destroyed bodies and the river Euphrates, alternately acting cryptic and crazed. Kim Deal, then calling herself "Mrs. John Murphy," contributes the highlight, "Gigantic," a creepy anthem about childhood voyeurism. The playing is snarly and tricky but unfailingly tuneful, and the hooks come out of nowhere, hiding behind the noise, and bite down hard. --Douglas Wolk
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