The Pixies

I must admit that before I listened to this album I really didn't know much about the Pixies. Someone I went to school with used to play their Trompe Le Monde album on our common room stereo every so often, and Fight Club (the film) had introduced me to the haunting refrain of “Where Is My Mind?”, but other than these brief exposures everything I knew about the band was gleaned from other bands referring to them. However, seeing as the bands eulogising about their influence were of the calibre of Radiohead and, most famously, Kurt Cobain once claimed that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” began life as an attempt to rip off the Pixies, I held some high hopes for this collection of songs. I even wondered if their greatest hits would lead to one of those magical worlds where you discover a band that you can't believe existed for so long without their songs being part of your life.

So did this happen? Have I wasted the last ten years not listening to the Pixies when I should have been? I think the answer to this is, infuriatingly, yes and no.

My initial impressions after listening to the album for the first time were not great. You know how you read an interview with a band you really like and they mention another band as a big influence, often you then make a point of listening to this influential band and are a little bit disappointed? Well that was exactly my feeling at first. Overall the Pixies sounded to me like a lo-fi punk band, with a shouty singer (occasionally augmented with shouty female vocals), whose songs had catchy moments, but were too often randomly structured, although thankfully generally quite short.

However I decided that too many people held them in too high esteem for this to be all there was to them. So I listened again, and again, and kept listening to see if they are the kind of band that needs some effort to be put in before you can get the best out of them. It turns out they are!

As I got to know the songs better “Cariobou's” unhinged foxtrot, “Gouge Away's” threatening aggression, “Where Is My Mind's” twisted beauty and “U-Mass's” pop sensibility began to make sense. And it wasn't long before other tracks began to reveal themselves; “Vamos”, “Debaser”, “Here Comes Your Man” became spontaneous and loose, rather then random.

So it seems with the Pixies what you get is Nirvana without the pop sheen. In other words raw, stripped building blocks of songs, unapologetically presented without polish. It takes a while to understand these songs, but it's worth the effort. However these are songs that will never be as accessible or lovable as some of the bands they've influenced meaning, depending on your viewpoint, they will never be quite as good.

To be honest I'm going to keep on listening, because every time I do something else jumps out at me. But this is a bit like listening to The Beatles “White Album” as opposed to “Revolver” or “Abbey Road”. If it's the finished product you're after stick to the Pixies' equivalent of “Abbey Road”, Nirvana.