For a long time, as many bands from the 80s and 90s decided to reform, they were a holdout. Now, in 2024, it's easier to think of bands that reformed than bands who didn't
Yet, there seems to be little gain in reforming. In a best case scenario like Dinosaur Jr- they have put out solid album after solid album but still don't get a ton of attention.
The Pixies may be the worst case scenario. If you want a comparison, maybe it's the Smashing Pumpkins. Key members are missing. The music doesn't stand up to the select small discography that had been for years, a gold standard for decades now. Yet, nothing stops the band from not only recording but being quite prolific.
The first reunion album - 2014s Indie Cindy probably remains the most popular. It felt very “by the numbers” to try and recapture the old spirit. It was derided by many but still still remains the high point of Pixies 2.0.
I haven't given up on the Pixies for two reasons. One is that their first four albums feel very different from each other and they bring that same spirit to the new releases. Surfer Rosa and Doolittle aren't that much different but Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde were varied in sound.
Also the Frank Black discography was lengthy and often surprising. He wasn't resistant to releasing a dud album, but at any time, he might turn around and put out a great one.
2016s Head Carrier is one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years. Critics and fans didn't particularly love it. NME and Mojo Magazine being the only places who gave it positive reviews. A detractor said it was as if the Pixies were just a “Pixies cover band”. But I disagree with the majority sentiment on this one. It does feel like a Pixies album to me and the addition of Paz Lenchantin I think brings a great new energy.
2019s Beneath the Eyrie got the band's best reviews to date. It's hard to argue that it's not a better album musically but as the Pixies drew tighter, they lost some of their personality. I like the album okay and yet never really felt I truly connected with it.
2021s Doggerel continued the trend but with less effect. There are a couple of good songs that will fit nicely on a Pixies playlist but the album itself is the type to quickly to fade away from memory.
With 2024s The Night the Zombies Came, the second incarnation of the band has released five albums which is as many as the original band did (or more if you don't include the 20 minute debut Come On Pilgrim as a full album).
Lenchantin has left the band which probably makes sense as her career has shown her to be someone who needs more creative outlets than just side person in a band. Her place taken now by Emma Richardson of UK Blues rockers Band of Skulls.
2024s The Night the Zombies Came is probably helped by the fact that it has a horror theme to unify the album. In many ways, the band shift from the sound of the last two albums to a more measured move to capture that original Pixies sound.
At this point, I think most early Pixies fan have moved on, but I don't have a problem accepting this as a subsequent album to Trompe Le Monde.
It is a shock that for many years the Pixies topped those “which band would you like to see reform” polls - pristine and stuck in time. But inevitably have taken a path we attribute to The Rolling Stones- a constant recording and touring band that will churn out a new album every couple of years.
Which may inevitably be their true legacy. Longtime fans may be long gone and these albums may be unheard. But even if they never reach those early career peaks, there is plenty to enjoy.
Cheesy horror movies play well to surf guitar, energetic rhythm and Black Francis's lyrical style.
It's easy to believe if this had been a Frank Black album it might be hailed as some kind of comeback.
It also seems inevitable to describe the album in ways that it most likely have been better with input from Kim Deal. Yes, I feel I should have likely moved on from those discussions as a Deal-Francis reunion doesn't even have the chances of the proverbial snowball in hell. But Deal released an album that is just as exciting a mere 28 days later.
Pixies 2.0 inevitably will be classified as "Black Francis backed by Santiago and Lovering" but this album gives me hope that there's still good music ahead.
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