Why Does Everybody Hate Me?!, an original opinon o nthis site for once... (Doolittle - Pixies)

Name: MakeMeOver

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Doolittle - Pixies
Date:	04/07/03 (606 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classic album, Eclectic, Frank Black's vocal delivery

Disadvantages: Initiall oblique lyrics, Too short at just over half and hour!, They've split up

Waves of mutilation...

Hating blue-eyed chicks...

Wanting to die...

Being the son of a motherf**ker...

Wishing there was no television...

(and my favourite)...

Wanting your girlfriend to send her wet dress into your prison cell...

Welcome to the strange, deranged mind of Frank Black (or Black Francis as he was known back then), front man of the now defunct cult group, The Pixies who fizzled out (arguably) at the peak of their powers. Their impact on music in the following decade since their 1992 split was massive. More so that any band since, Led Zeppelin or The Beatles, The Pixies really did attack the music world with a full on assault, of which the ashes are still yet to lay to rest today.

Consisting of four genius musicians (Black Francis- vocals, guitar, Joey Santiago- lead guitar, Kim Deal- bass, backing vocals, Dave Lovering- drums, backing vocals), the band produced four critically acclaimed studio albums (one every year since 1988) of which, Doolittle is to most fans, the very greatest of them all.

It is in this record that the demon seeds of Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead (Thom Yorke cites Black as his idol) and Weezer were planted (oh and probably every other alternative rock band you've heard in the mid-90s). It is for these reasons that most fans view this record, and not Nirvana's hugely overrated (but still fine in its field) Nevermind, as "the album" that started the whole indie rock revolution. This is the album that first showed the coffins to poodle metal and synth-laden prog-rock, while Nevermind was the record that just hammered in the final nails.

So, "Never Mind The Bollocks", here's The Pixies...

Doolittle is one eclectic cauldron of a record. I'd go as far as likening it to The Beatles' Revolver in terms of diversity, and musical range. But instead of nice pop melodies, this album lunges for y
our throat immediately. Straight from the word go, it kicks in... No note is uncalled for, and every single guitar chord or lyric seems essential. The album pulls no pit-stops, it's just song after song of pure punk rock bliss.

The opening song, Debaser, is probably the only song I've ever heard that can really lift my spirits up a huge amount. Forget all of those feel-good compilations (you know what I'm talking about, Party Time Volume 8...) drowned in sentimental bulls**t and cringe-worthy imagery. Whenever I listen to those, it's just as if I've eaten too much candy floss and I want to puke it out... No, with one raw, cocky verse, Frank Black makes you feel that this could turn out to be the best day of your life. No bulls**t, no sentimental afterthoughts, no nostalgia:

"Got me a movie, I wanna you to know!
Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know!
Girlie so groovy, I want you to know!
Don't know about you, but I am...
Un chien andalusia, I am un..."

Yes, it doesn't make much sense. But with the raging guitar backing, and surfer-rock bassline and with the lyrics played out halfway between an ear-piercing shriek and a rap, you're left in no doubt how the singer feels and wants you to feel.

Every single song gives you a certain mood and throughout the album, all possible human emotions are explored to their fullest extent. Embarrassment (I Bleed), rage (Tame), cockiness (No. 13 Baby), heartbreak (Hey!), boredom (Gouge Away), guilty pleasure (Mr. Grieves), nostalgia (Silver) and, best of all, nihilism (Dead), it's all touched upon in turn during this classic 15 song display of showmanship from Black and his band.

Lyrically, although obscure and often seemingly impenetrable, the album is genius once you dig into it deeper. Each song may seem simple on the surface but look in deeper and you will reap greater rewards. Each lyric may hide a double, or a triple
meaning, each one bringing a new spin on the song or may be a satirical swipe instead of what previously seemed to be a sentimental collection of words. "I Bleed" is a wonderful example of Black Francis at his best:

"As loud as hell, a ringing bell
Behind my smile, it shakes my teeth
And all the while, as vampires feed
I Bleed!"

The lyrics perfectly convey how one feel when they have been embarrassed. People smile to hide their pain, people feel like they're bleeding so that people can see inside them. The music only backs this too well. Initially, a lovely surfer-rock bassline and a guitar solo lead into a double-vocal duet by Black and Deal. Black playing the deadpan delivery to Deal's fantastic harmonising as both vocalists sing the same lines, often out of faze. As they go on, Black's voice becomes more and more agitated until the guitars pile on for the shouted chorus of "I Bleed!". It's the musical equivalent of spectacularly destructive car pile-up.

So what do The Pixies "sound" like? First and foremost, Frank Black (or Black Francis back then) is the best rock vocalist of ALL TIME. Forget Mcartney, Lennon, Jagger, Yorke, Cobain, Cuomo- nobody does it better than Black as he can deliver any style he wants. Through The Pixies, he could change from a whisper to a scream in a milli-second (Tame) and frequently went from high-pitched craziness to low, sarcastic deadpan line singing. His vocals make an impact, and make you feel like he’s actually meaning what he is singing.

This has to be their most eclectic album but if there is one common theme linking all of these songs together, it is loud guitars, girl-group harmonising mixed with punk rock vocal delivery, songs that often follow the big-bang theory after all, they invented it- soft verse, loud chorus) and surf-rock melodies with the occasional Spanish guitar line or foreign lyric thrown in for go
od measure. However into that delicious stew which makes up virtually every Pixies album (swansong Trompe Le Monde, being a slight exception, adding more hardcore melodies into the mix), other factors are added in at various other points that give the album its sense of wild originality.

Since when have you heard a spaghetti-western country-tinged tune (Silver) on a mainstream rock record? Or since when has a band as looked upon as The Pixies had the balls to add into their punk mix a beautiful, bouncy, Top 40 bothering pop track (Here Comes Your Man) without losing any of their credibility (Here Comes Your Man is viewed upon by fans as a Pixies classic among the more hardcore songs). And have you ever heard a man barking like a dog (more on that later) to produce one of the greatest choruses to a rock song ever on the short, simple but unbelievably mean Crackity Jones (about Black's former roommate during a college exchange to the run-down streets of Peru). But, in my opinion, best of all is Hey!. The song can only really be described as a power-ballad/violent grunge song/country song sung by a demented psycho-killer holding a chainsaw. Black's tortured vocals initially followed only by a sole bass guitar and a lovely electric country guitar riff becomes angrier and angrier, producing, along with the fantastic lyrics and odd John Bonham-esque drum clatter, the biggest visceral impact this record, or any record for a long time, has to offer:

"Hey! Been trying to meet you, hmmm...
Must be a devil between us,
Or whores in my head
Whore at the door, whore in my bed
But Hey! Where have you been?
If you go, I will surely die!
We're cha-in-ed, cha-in-ed!"

Then the song dives into the third best guitar solo I have ever heard in my life, and that's quite good consisting the chorus solo consists of only one largely elongated note, but it's a beautiful one at that.

So, what more t
o say? I can't really recommend this record enough. It stands as the second-best album I've ever heard in my life and I've heard a lot of good music (I'm taking in classic artists like The Beatles, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses, Radiohead and others into this). But rarely can a band bring together a raw visceral thrill, couple it with achingly beautiful melodies and sound hugely intelligent at the same time. And the most important thing is that the Pixies music is, first and foremost, fun to listen to. There are no pretensions (listening Thom?), or no big scheme, the songs are here and they jump on you immediately, begging you to adore them. I got into The Pixies by accident, by downloading a fake Placebo file that turned out to be Hey! by The Pixies. I was astonished. I downloaded Doolittle, it got me through my school exams and GCSE this year. After the punishing exam schedule was finished, I downloaded every single Pixies song ever and then proceeded to buy all of the records this summer, because I felt like I actually wanted to OWN them for real, that's how good the songs were.

Well, I've stated my case; it's up to you now...

Thanks a lot for reading, it's been a long time since I wrote my last opinion, because of work but I was also fairly surprised that nobody really read it. I mean back in my Pinkertonisrad days, I really did pull in the readers? Maybe I should use those controversial techniques again, what do you think? Post a message on the boards, I'll definitely reply, no matter what your cynical minds may be thinking. And I know it's cheap but please nominate for a crown, it will make me feel that this opinion is actually good and was actually worth writing for the last hour or so.

Chow,
MakeMeOver

Summary: