salivation's Full Review: Surfer Rosa by The Pixies
Like a lot of great albums, Surfer Rosa starts with a simple chunk of garbage can drums before introducing anything else. It loudly signifies that what is to follow could be absolutely anything- metal, punkpop, pre-grunge (That's the grunge before regular grunge and post grunge) but ultimately it reaches its hands in all these things and a little more, being just a little more alternative than most alternative.
Surfer Rosa is a grinding, jarring album and a perfect
introduction to the band's unique and often overlooked sound and concept. It is an absolute shame that they don't have the popularity or mass appeal of a band like Nirvana, but absolutely understandable. Thing is, that if you want to observe a history of alternative, they're just as crucial as Nirvana, and a slightly more jagged piece of the puzzle at that.
While most people in the alternative and indie world seem accustomed to them as a staple, I find that everybody else has absolutely no knowledge of the band. And by their sound on this album it takes significant effort to introduce yourself to them. If referred by a friend, however, you can be exposed to the choice bits that make this album and most of their body of work so unique, and an absolute celebration of quirk.
How fun it is to reveal lyrics such as He bought me a soda and tried to molest me in the parking lot! in Bone Machine to other people. The music carries a sort of fearlessness about immaturity, while still proving it can be poignant and sublime. That combined, along with Frank Black lyricisms and Kim Deal's traded off vocals, gives the music a color and impact that is sorely missed from most alternative rock bands, especially those of their era.
With Surfer Rosa the band has yet to completely embrace their whimsical side, making this perhaps their most rugged work. Pieces of the music schizophrenically shuffle between heady pop passages and mussy breakdowns, pretty much paving the way for the majority of the grunge era while not sounding the slight bit blue or depressing for the majority of the scant 33 minutes.
Yeah it's a short album, but honestly, in the nature of the music it's exactly as long as it needs to be. Much like in Pink Moon I think that more feels like a lot less when the content is majoritively of quality. Hard to believe there is filler in that 33 and a half minutes, but so it stands.
The majority of the addiction in all Pixies work is that guitar. It buries itself in your brain, and I can honestly say that they've created some of the best riffs ever comprised, balancing the simple break of emotion with the heady, rough edges of things metal in nature. What that really means is that you can listen to Where is My Mind on repeat for 6 hours and somehow love it even more.
None of this would work however, without Albini's tight production. His trademark sense of tension with all punk albums means that there isn't really a silent moment on the whole album, on first listen you'd probably think "Look at the noisy trash some people listen to" (I know that's how I felt with Rid of Me, In Utero and this one) Still, once you peel back that layer you realize that there being no moment of rest actually helps the album. The jarring percussion gives the pop crunch some heat and the rackety guitars only serve to make you feel like you're running a car into a brick wall every single time you put it on without fail.
Like all Pixies albums, there are a number of humorous songs, a few eerie ones and one or two that are nothing short of "splendid". Bone Machine tells the story of a man who's woman is unfaithful to him, has Irish skin that looks Mexican, and is offered a soda in a parking lot when the aforementioned molestation attempt occured. Of course that line could be as schizoid as it sounds if delivered oddly, but instead is pressed in with the hilarity of a bunch of bizarre yelps at the end of it.
What's great is that this can then veer into the much more grinding and jeering Break My Body, which roars much more tastefully than the previous song and fits together with perfect measure. There are a lot of heady, rough, rigid moments. The thrashing of Oh My Golly! will pretty much use bilingualism to melt your ears into a puddle. Same deal with Vamos, which sounds like it's cut from exactly the same song, featuring a long instrumental passage broken up by a couple random and oddly funny screams.
Regardless, the most remembered moments of Surfer Rosa are going to be the pop ones. Pixies are, in fact, pop at their core, every album after this proves that. Where is My Mind? is the sort of song you will hear once and love forever after that. Along with the best guitar intro of almost any song ever, the music careens around and essentially runs off as a 4 minute vacation from yourself.
A lot of people know it as being the oddly placed final song in Fight Club, and while it probably gave the ending a little more levity and closure than it deserved, it's probably even more powerful standing alone, featuring an odd choral echo and some truly insane lyrics.
I was swimmin' in the Carribean
Animals were hiding behind the rock
Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin' to talk to me to me to me
While I love Where is My Mind, my two favorite songs on the album have to be River Euphrates and the very delicate Cactus.
River Euphrates is an extremely addicting journey, featuring layered vocals. Kim Deal delivers my favorite vocal performance of hers (This and Winterlong actually) by chanting in a very delicate manner for almost the entirety of the song while Frank Black hisses indistinguishable lyrics in the background, before the whole thing explodes at once. It really does feel like you're headed down a river.
Cactus though, Cactus is simply one of the most beautifully constructed things you'll ever hear. The song could work as either an instrumental or a poem, it doesn't matter. The vibe of both the words and music is grand and probably the biggest key to actually trying to figure out what the hell this band is supposed to be about.
Sitting here wishing on a cement floor
Just wishin' that I had just something you wore
Bloody your hands on a cactus tree
Wipe it on your dress and send it to me
It helps that the song carreens about almost silently despite heavy percussion. It's perfect.
Ultimately, Surfer Rosa is loud, eccentric and a lot of fun. It carries an excitement and noise that could only develop from people actually enjoying playing music together. It might have the rare album effect of making you giddy with excitement if you let it, and that alone makes it worth listening to.
Mind altering substances not included.
Recommended tracks:
Cactus
River Euphrates
Where is My Mind?
Break My Body
Broken Face
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