{"product_id":"pixies-surfer-rosa-2004-reissue","title":"Pixies – Surfer Rosa (2004 Reissue)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThough the specialist subjects of sun, surf and dubious sexual encounters of their debut ep (1987’s Come On Pilgrim) had been retained, the overall mood masterminded a year later on their first full length record was altogether more unruly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Bostonian quartet, formed by guitarist and singer, Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV - who for understandable reasons of alt rock credibility rechristened himself Black Francis – fell in with producer Steve Albini to create an album which though failing to chart at the time, had a telling influence on those picking up on the harsh, surly undertow of its (at times) frat-house humours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbini’s production simultaneously amplifies The Pixies’ endearing naiveté and hectic energies, contrasting the polarities of throwaway trash (the tongue-in-cheek nerdy B-52s-type hero worship of “Tony’s Theme”) versus the snarling thrash of “Vamos” (a remade carry-over from Come On Pilgrim) which does much to lend the album its unsettling volatility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough “Gigantic” co-written and sung by bassist Kim Deal, shows they were more than capable of delivering hook-laden pop, it credibly opened up the kind of territory which Kurt Cobain and pals would later claim as their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed such was its legacy, David Bowie covered “Cactus” on 2002’s Heathen. Somewhat sanitised on that occasion, the original version here has a don’t-go-there edge to it, and is one of the best songs ever to burst in and shine an FBI-style flashlight onto the darker, closeted recesses of obsessive love; ‘Bloody your hands on a cactus tree\/ Wipe it on your dress and send it to me.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe left-field locations continue with “Bone Machine,” the limelight veering between Francis’ tale of parking lot molestation and a wonderful solo by their ingenious lead guitarist, Joey Santiago. Beginning like James Brown’s “Sex Machine” being not so much taken as frog-marched to the bridge, it rapidly leaps into a revved-up blast recalling one of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp’s patented chordal solos; a genuinely thrilling 18 seconds that you never want to end. Though the follow-up, Doolittle (1989), ultimately widened their appeal, this is indispensable warts-and-all stuff that set the benchmark. — (via\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/music\/reviews\/dr3n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e BBC Music\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike the stopped clock, even Billy Corgan is right sometimes. “It rocked without being lame,” he said of Surfer Rosa, the first full-length Pixies album, in a sentence that many of the record’s admirers might find dismissively simplistic, but which is actually truer than a thousand of the more florid pieces of analysis devoted to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSurfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e was, and still is an amazing record. It’s Pixies’ best, something that becomes ever more apparent with the passage of time (reviewing Bossanova for Melody Maker in 1990, Bob Stanley remarked that he didn’t really get the genuflection before Pixies albums, since they had so much filler; he’s largely right, but \u003cem\u003eSurfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e is by a distance the one with the least filler). It’s a landmark record because it doesn’t sound of its time, whereas so many of 1988’s other critical favourites do sound of their time, for reasons of technology or fashion or context: NME made Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back it’s album of the year, with\u003cem\u003e Surfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e at No 10, which was a perfectly reasonable position to take – Millions is a great, groundbreaking album – but 30 years on, \u003cem\u003eSurfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e is the one that has aged into timelessness rather than becoming a period piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI think the reason \u003cem\u003eSurfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e sounds timeless, sounds classic, is that, at heart, it is a very traditional album. Listen to it closely (even better, don’t listen closely; just have it on in the background). It’s not a revolutionary statement of musical intent. It’s a Classic Rock album. No, it doesn’t sound like Boston or the Stones or ZZ Top or any of the behemoths of American radio formats; it’s a bluesless album, a product of the great schisms of the late 70s in which not just punk but hard rock, too, expunged the shuffle from guitar music that wasn’t specifically celebrating the blues. But so much of its DNA is in Classic Rock that it’s easy to see why British audiences seized on it: while satisfying fetish for newness that British music fans like to identify in themselves, because of its dervish noise and lyrical perversity, it offered so many familiar comforts that you didn’t need to be a maven of the underground to love it. Conversely, maybe it was neglected in America because the underground tastemakers noted Pixies’ conservatism, while it remained too leftfield for the actual Boston and ZZ Top fans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSurfer Rosa\u003c\/em\u003e endures. It will continue to endure. Teenagers will continue to discover Pixies – you see them at the shows – thrilling to the lyrical transgression; adults will continue to listen to them, reliving a past. Younger bands will continue to acknowledge them – Kings of Leon, of all people, cited them as an inspiration when the two groups shared a bill in Hyde Park last summer. Nowadays, the notion that Pixies are a classic band isn’t something to dispute. It’s only a hop from there to accepting them as Classic Rock. — (via \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/opinion-and-essays\/anniversary\/pixies-surfer-rosa-review-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eThe Quietus\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" style=\"border-radius: 12px;\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/50j4Wm1b9hLpSpPIA39Vp9?utm_source=generator\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e↓\u003cbr\u003eLabel: 4AD\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue\u003cbr\u003eReissued: 2004 \/ Originally Released: 1988\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Rock\u003cbr\u003eStyle: Alternative Rock\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFile under: School Of Rock\u003cbr\u003e⦿\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"4AD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46607256322206,"sku":"652637080315","price":60.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0584\/5434\/3838\/files\/488.jpg?v=1773471532","url":"https:\/\/theanalogvault.com\/products\/pixies-surfer-rosa-2004-reissue","provider":"The Analog Vault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}