Hook In Their Heads: Pixies Wow Us With Sixth Album

Pixies

After half a dozen albums with the Pixies and more than twice that as the solo artist, Frank Black, how is it that Black Francis (nee Charles Thompson) is still able to write songs that are so damn catchy??  Their 2014 comeback album, "Indie Cindy", their first album in 24 years, was pretty damn good, but, amazingly, "Head Carrier" is even better.  If "Indie Cindy" was dipping their toes back into mainstream music - indeed one could argue their first foray, because they have gone from playing small venues in the '80s to selling out arenas - then "Head Carrier" represents a confidence, a self-assuredness of their sound, of their place in the world of rock.

First of all, I should recognize - this is the first Pixies album with active contribution from new bassist Paz Lenchantin as bassist.  Anyone who is familiar with the music of Maynard James Keenan's project, A Perfect Circle, will know who Paz is and know her skills as a bassist.  Here, she meshes well into the rhythm section with drummer, David Lovering, as well as adding backing vocals just as her predecessor, Kim Deal did.  In fact, Paz has a songwriting credit, "All I Think About Now", a pleasant tune with a "Where Is My Mind?" vibe, where she takes over led vocals.  The song is an open-letter, a thank-you note to Kim Deal.

"Head Carrier", the title track, opens the album with Joey Santiago's fierce strumming and Black Francis's bizarre lyrics, and gives way shortly to such a hook that reels you in for the rest of the album.  "Classic Masher" has what I call the "Boston sound", prevalent with a lot of bands that came out of New England at the time, like The Breeders, Belly, and Throwing Muses.  "Baal's Back" goes fiercely aggressive, and Francis's growl is back.  This song is all out metal, sounding more like W.A.S.P. than Pixies.  "Might As Well Be Gone" is as close to a ballad as the Pixies will record.  "Oona" is probably one of my favorite songs, a pleasurable mix of punk and pop.  "Talent" is a fast-paced tune with wonderful lyrics like:

"I met this really cool dude today

Looking just like Jack Palance

He said, 'I want to get through to you,

And help you find your talents"

"Tenement Song", with Santiago's guitar wailing along with Francis's and Paz's vocals, is one of those catchy songs I was talking about.  In "Bel Esprit", they share vocal duties, and the songs reminds me vaguely of something by The Descendents.  "Um Chagga Lagga" veers into hardcore, much like they did with "Isla de Ecanta" or "Crackity Jones"  "Plaster of Paris" reminds me of something by The Feelies, and "All the Saints" finishes the album with a surfy, melancholy note.

Okay, it goes without saying that NONE of these albums are going to be on the same level with
"Doolittle", which I consider the best rock album ever recorded.  And people really need to stop comparing the music of the Pixies then to the music now.  They were younger then, as was I, and they are middle-aged now, just like me.  Of course their music is going to be different now.  But people should take "Head Carrier" for what it is - a great album written by a band who has survived more than thirty years, has lived to tell the tale, and can still write some pretty fucking awesome songs.