Death To The Pixies 1987-1991 (5/33)

Death To The Pixies 1987-1991 - Pixies
1997

Standout Tracks: Here Comes Your Man, Debaser, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Gigantic

I'm sure there's a rule about including a Best Of… in any favourite album list but, in all honesty, this is the Pixies CD I listen to the most. This is because I don't find Pixies' albums to be packages, more a collection of songs. So a collection of their best songs makes the best Pixies record. This may also be because I was only 10 years old when the Pixies surfaced, so they're a band I worked back to as opposed to discovering.

This compilation spans just four years, in which time the Pixies knocked out four albums and an EP. Not bad. Two of those albums featured in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, they've been cited as an influence by an army of bands including Nirvana and Radiohead. They were also very instrumental in changing rock music for the entire 90s generation and beyond. Not bad at all.

The Pixies were pioneers of alternative pop - quiet in the verse and LOUD in the chorus, start-stop timing, screaming without it sounding a bit naff and all delivered with an air of effortless cool. Upon hearing 'Here Comes Your Man' or 'Debaser', I find dancing is pretty much mandatory. The latter being such a perfect slice of alternative pop it makes 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' seem like its boring cousin.

It's hard to believe no one thought to employ the Pixies technique before! The chorus is the part of the song everyone wants to sing along too, everyone loves a good chorus so, with simple tricks such as the whispered vocals on 'Tame' or the lack of drums in Debaser's second verse, the Pixies made the biggest choruses they could!
Trying to find a highlight here is no easy task! The chorus in 'Gigantic' being exactly as its name suggests, 'Caribou' swinging from the moody swagger of its verse to those wonderful screams of "repent", Kim Deal's haunting backing vocals on 'Where Is My Mind'… Actually, it's that bit in 'Monkey Gone To Heaven': "If man is five…" that's the best bit.

The Pixies should be remembered for their influence on alternative music - even if that does include the hilarious nu-metal and the irritating diet-grunge of the Nickelback crowd - but they should mostly be remembered for creating such brilliant, brilliant pop-music.

If you're a stickler for the rules, 'Doolittle' is their best album.