Indie Cindy… Blues Suze

Review: Pixies – Indie Cindy

Published on April 30th, 2014 | Jonny Abrams

By gum, how we love Pixies, whose new ‘album’ Indie Cindy is their first since 1991 – so you can imagine the unfurling narrative when we didn’t quite take to EPs 1 and 2.

There’s some decent enough stuff on ’em – “Andro Queen” still sounds lovely, elegant and shimmering, while opener “What Goes Boom” could easily have been one of the better tracks on Trompe le Monde – but the stapling of a third fairly underwhelming EP onto two others doesn’t even come close to doing justice to Pixies’ great legacy.

It’s not just that Kim Deal plays no part whatsoever, which not only leaves a bad taste from the outset but robs them of a distinctive and much-loved part of their sound.

After all, the reunited presence of Frank Black/Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering is not to be scoffed at, even if the progressively stifled input of Deal throughout Pixies’ glorious initial run did result in marginally sub-par send-off LP Trompe le Monde.

It’s just that the lion’s share of the tracks here sound not so much ‘vintage Pixies’ as ‘Pixies-influenced but slightly off somehow’, not least the unsettlingly tame “Greens and Blues”.

No, not “Tame” – just plain old tame. Even the abrasive speak-singing and spiky riffing of the
title track feels a little heavy-handed, although in mitigation it slips into a lovely, loping anthem of a chorus.

“Bagboy” is probably most notable for the album’s first instance of Kim Deal style vocals, apart from which it’s something that might have sounded futuristically insane had it been released in the early ’90s, we guess.

Then there’s “Magdalena”, which bears an unfortunate titular resonance with the far superior “Havalina” from 1990 LP Bossanova, and the bereft-of-distinguishing-features “Blue Eyed Hexe”.

That “Another Toe in the Ocean” sounds a bit like Green Album era Weezer is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s kinda disappointing to hear coming from Pixies, whose spikier former selves are channelled more satisfactorily on “Jaime Bravo” and the tense ‘n’ grimy “Silver Snail” (“Ain’t no place for to hide / At an orgy of booze and brides / At the scene of a suicide”).

Look, everything Pixies touched from C’mon Pilgrim right through to Bossanova and most of Trompe le Monde turned to gold, so they’re still well in credit – let’s just stick three quails on it and ride the goodwill train the hell on out of here.

Indie Cindy is out now on Pixies Music.

BUY: Indie Cindy on iTunes or on Amazon.

Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!

a quail a quail a quail

Artists: pixies

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.