Photo: Press
“Hey Rusty! Come hold loser’s hand. This déjà vu is not what I had planned.”
Could this nonsensical collection of words be anything other than the opening salvo of a Pixies song? Such is the burrowing of Frank Black’s unique syntax into devotees’ ears, for millions it could not.
So begins the Pixies’ latest album Head Carrier. And the opening title track is as pure a Pixies song as you will ever hear. Think ‘Break My Body’ written by a band both emboldened and burdened by a quarter of a century flying past the tour bus window.
Head Carrier is the band’s second post-comeback album. They took their time to release new music after reforming in 2004, with 2014’s Indie Cindy representing the first full-length release since 1991’s Trompe Le Monde.
Indie Cindy was a frustrating record. In many ways it sounded like the band was trying too hard to take the direction of Trompe Le Monde (a brilliant and much underrated album) and move it into the 21st century. It had flashes of brilliance (‘Green and Blues’ showed the magic was still there somewhere) but most fans never really warmed to it.
The fact it was pretty much three EPs spliced together didn’t help, but there was more than that. At its heart, it just didn’t have whatever it was that makes the Pixies so great. But if Indie Cindy was The Phantom Menace, Head Carrier is very much The Force Awakens.
The whole collection feels like Frank Black searching his back catalogue to regain the magic The Pixies had in spades in the years around 1990. And largely this tactic succeeds. ‘Might As Well Be Gone’ has a Come On Pilgrim-era offbeat acoustic charm to it. ‘Tenement Song’ is superb and sees bassist Paz Lenchantin (the Daisy Ridley to Kim Deal’s Carrie Fisher) cut her vocal chops in impressive fashion.
There are some bum notes. ‘Balls Back’ is a dreadful mess where Black’s growled vocals, aiming for the ‘Planet of Sound’ region, sound horribly weak and out of place. But overall this album sounds great. It’s nothing new, but when a band like The Pixies has been around this long, is going for something new always the best play?
This could almost be described as the sound of Pixies not trying to innovate – not trying to give us something we’ve not heard before. And this collection would seem to vindicate that approach. When a band, even one as genre-definingly brilliant as Pixies, reach a certain point maybe rehashing old ground, but doing it well, is as good as it gets.
Head Carrier covers no new ground but takes us to a familiar destination. And we like that destination, it makes us feel good. For that reason alone, this album deserves to exist and take its place in the band’s canon.
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Pixies' full upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets to the new dates are on sale from 9am on Friday 19 August and will be available here.
NOVEMBER
28 Brixton Academy, London, UK
29 Brixton Academy, London, UK
30 O2 Academy, Leeds, UK
DECEMBER
2 Barrowland, Glasgow, UK
3 O2 Academy, Newcastle, UK
4 Apollo, Manchester, UK
6 Brixton Academy, London, UK
7 Cardiff Arena, Cardiff, UK
8 Birmingham Academy, Birmingham, UK
