| Product: |
Doolittle - Pixies |
| Date: |
29.04.04 (100 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Glorious pop brilliance, Evocative and often terrifying lyrics, Kim Deal's breathy backing vocals
Disadvantages: Umm... too short?
'Doolittle' represents the pinnacle of the Pixie canon; as good as the albums that followed this were, neither of them lived up to the above-and-beyond criticism standard set by this. There's not much to choose between this and its predecessor; whereas 'Surfer Rosa' was a teeth-bared, vicious, nasty piece of brilliantly noisy grit, 'Doolittle' is polished with a studio-pop sheen that lends a new dynamic to the songs; no less terrifying, but more spectacular.
Take 'Debaser', for example; a bassline of pure melody starts, before chiming guitars and urgent, up-front drums crash in and burn through 3 minutes of pure pop ecstasy with a vicious edge; "Slicing up eyeballs!" yells Black Francis. "Argh!" yells you. 'Tame' is an incongruously named exercise in that pure genius pixies dynamic; a quiet verse and an awesomely loud chorus that lays bare the debt Nirvana owe to the pixies. Then there's 'Wave Of Mutilation' (the pixies have all the best song names!), the surf-pop classic. Again, there's that sweet-pop/gory psychopath juxtaposition; a lovely chord progression and spectacular guitars next to lyrics about driving cars into oceans. Weeeeeird!
'I bleed' (see what i mean about the songnames) is something of a calming down in terms of tempo, but it's no less vicious, and the interplay between Kim Deal and Black Francis' vocal parts are a joy to listen to. 'Here Comes Your Man' is a hooky little slice of melodic pop gold; possibly the most poppy offering on the album, it's one of the Pixies' most danceable and singable anthems. From there, however, we're plunged into 'Dead', a fantastically dramatic retelling of the Bethseba story, with nightmarish guitar screeches and a drumline that pounds ominously
like an approaching army.
'Monkey Gone To Heaven' is a masterpiece; a green anthem that demonstrates how to laugh at the profound whilst simultaneously being very profound indeed. Lines about gods in the sea and sky being killed by humanity's pollution would sound hokey and melodramatic by any other band, but here they sound urgent and vital. The song itself is a toweringly magnificent and beautiful success. 'Mr Grieves' is a fun ska-punk dance-along, and 'Crackity Jones' is probably the fastest and most panicked song on the CD. Now, to be honest, I was never very keen on 'There Goes My Gun' (check out the 'Pixies At The BBC' for the way it should be played :p), but I know people who would disagree so it's probably a matter of taste.
'Hey' is my personal highlight; with it's bitter reproach and resigned tone it represents a downshift from the wide-eyed screech of the rest of the album into more moving territory. A slow burning verse gives way and a staggering chorus looms, with moving lyrics about (literally?!) being chained to someone else. 'Gouge Away', the closer, is clearly the starting point for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', and continues that biblical theme with the tale of Samson And Delilah; "Chained to the pillars/a three day party/i break the walls/and kill us all/with holy fingers".
To wrap this up, this is by far the most approachable Pixies album and is a good place to start. You'll like this if you're a fan of just about any guitar music from the 90s; just about every single guitar band after this was directly or indirectly influenced by the Pixies' keen melodic sense and shifting song dynamics. Personally, I prefer Surfer Rosa but that's purely my
opinion; I'm aware that there's just about nothing to choose between them. Both are brilliant, and just as essential.
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