PIXIES Poll: The best track on Trompe le Monde

"Planet of Sound" – 2:06
"Alec Eiffel" – 2:50
"Head On" – 2:13
"Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons" – 2:48

^^^ one of these depending on mood, probably the dive-bombing "Planet of Sound" since "Bird Dream" is basically me waiting for the "into the mountain" part to come around.

This and Bossanova just got reissued on vinyl BTW - glad to finally replace the cassettes that I bought at the thrift store three years ago and played till they broke.

"Letter to Memphis" for me.

The combination of chord changes and BF's vocal on "And all these sirens they make me mad
/ And all this violence it brings me down" is the clencher.

"Distance Equals Rate Times Time" is a close second, though. "I had me a vision!" Kim's bg vocals on the chorus are solid gold.

A good album, but bedeviled by poor sequencing. "Alec Eiffel" and "U-Mass" are my faves after the JAMC cover.

I always forget about "Distance Equals Rate Times Time" because the title makes me think it's "Space (I Believe In)" with the whole "D equals R times T" being in the lyrics and all. DERTT is a great song though! "WE GOT TO GET SOME BEE-URRR! We GOT no AT MOE SPHE-UHR!"

Alfred, I'm not sure how I'd sequence this album differently... but that's after listening to it for 17 years.

Ideas?

Head On. Sadly the best song in here ain't written by Pixies.

Yeah, but they definitely do the definitive version of it, as far as I'm concerned. (See also "Superman" over on the Lifes Rich Pageant poll I just started.)

Still, I've always kind of wished "Head On" had been a stand-alone single and they'd re-recorded "Bailey's Walk" or "Into the White" for Trompe instead.

Alfred, I'm not sure how I'd sequence this album differently... but that's after listening to it for 17 years.

I need to listen to it again, but I'd probably leave the first three tracks alone -- it's disorienting to begin with a Kim Deal-sung track, then gradually built to the keyboard and harmony outro of "Alec Eiffel" -- and fuck with the second side (I still only own this on cassette).

motorway to roswell just barely over planet of sound, alec eiffel, and letter to memphis

Definitely "Bird Dream.." for me. Followed closely by (in no particular order) "Alec Eiffel," "Planet of Sound," "Head On," & "Motorway to Roswell." I never understood the beef people have with this record (other than the distinct lack of Deal imput - surely her vox would have helped the dreamier pop songs like "Bird Dream.." and "Letter to Memphis" reach even greater heights, ala "Hey" or the coda to "The Happening"). To my ears, it is on par with the impeccable standards they'd set for themselves with the previous three (four, if you count Pilgrim) Sometimes I wish the production were a little rougher hewn & that there were more of BF's surf twang guitar, but whatevs.

Found this on YouTube: Does anything say "1991" quite like a performance by The Pixies on The Dennis Miller Show. Just scope the fonts, the ultra-pleated suit & the CD longbox.

Cor - they were rubbish without the Letterman house band...

That audience on the Dennis Miller clip is ...excited. I guess I would've been too, though. The only time I ever saw the Pixies was on that U2 tour they talked about.

And that Letterman thing is just completely weird.

Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons.

Just listened to it again. Favourite Pixies album and... I'm voting... argh, its too hard... The Sad Punk! Fuck it, yeah, The Sad Punk.

Motorway to Roswell! What the hell is wrong with you people?

sorry but another vote for 'motorway to roswell.' (was your post an objection or a wtf more people should vote for it?) this was really hard btw, first pixies album i heard!!!!

it was a wtf! possibly their finest track! one of my all time favourites of all time!

yes!

i know it's missing lots of classic pixies motifs - frank doesn't yelp, joey doesn't rock out - but the sad alien theme and the long coda with the circling guitar, the call/response vocals and above all the gorgeous electric piano melody... [swoons].

and the piano!!! lol so great.

I WAS LOOKING HANDSOME
SHE WAS LOOKING LIKE AN EROTIC VULTURE

^^^^encroaching on mark e. smith territory?!

this poll kind of reinforces for me that this is a solid record that doesn't have any stand out tracks, and could've been a great record if it did. i could vote for any of more than half the songs with a clear conscience. that said, i'm going for Distance Equals Rate Times Time. it's the start of potentially one of the best Pixies songs, only they forgot to finish it.

^^^suggest ban.

dude, i would wear a suggest ban from you like a badge of honour, so thanks.

I love this album. I like every single song on this, whereas there are songs on Surfer Rosa and Doolittle I don't really like, even if the albums as a whole are better.

Head On's a great cover ... but U-Mass.

It's not easy, but I'll put in the first vote for "Lovely Day"

I'll send you money
Send you lots of money
And you can buy a ticket
You'll be my
Mar-
Tian
Hon-
Ney
All
The
DAY!
They got one leavin' today!
They got one leavin' today!
They got one leavin' today!
And it's going away...

Plus, the dumbek!

Oh man. I instinctively voted for 'Bird Dream' but now I've read the thread and been reminded of SO MANY great moments and realise I should really listen to this album agian! My old band used to cover 'u mass', but oh god SUBBACULTCHA...

Best track is the one you hear when you're 14. After that... who listens to this???

and the long coda with the circling guitar, the call-response vocals and above all the gorgeous electric piano melody... (swoons).

otm, it's all about the ending. probably my fave pixies moment ever

this poll kind of reinforces for me that this is a solid record that doesn't have any stand out tracks, and could've been a great record if it did. i could vote for any of more than half the songs with a clear conscience.

it could also be interepreted as there are a bunch of standout tracks and it's too hard to pick. similar to the hex enduction hour poll, i could have just flipped a coin and been happy

whoops, interpreted

After that... who listens to this???

People who aren't hung up on what age they listen to what music, jerkoff.

I know it's the most typically "Pixies" song here but it has to be U-Mass for me.

Thanks to this poll this bit has been stuck in my head all day:

And lots of guys who shook their heads
RHYTHMICALLY TO RESOUND THIS AIN'T THE PLANET OF SOUND!

Love that middle album stretch: Palace of the Brine/Letter to Memphis/Bird Dream. That's my favorite bit. First third of the record feels a bit choppy to me, as though assembled at random. And for the 1st time in the Pixies catalog, I find the shouty stuff more grating than cathartic (Planet of Sound, U-Mass).

This album sounds like they had the most fun recording it of any of their albums, but I bet that isn't really true.

I hated it when it came out. I suppose it's been long enough that it deserves another shot. I mean I absolutely love all their other stuff...

Ooh, I wonder. Did things start falling apart in the studio or on the tour that followed? xp

I can't really pick either, it's such a great record all around.

i think i'm the only one that picked trompe le monde. i love that song, though. it was between that and U-Mass.

I love that song too. Weird that it gets overlooked in discussions on the album, being the opener and all.

i do love this record -- probably as much as any Pixies record really. I went with Subbacultchah, which is awesome in about ten different ways. One of their most funny/disturbing lyrics ... "You know, when you grope for lunar!" interesting that the early versions of it include "Distance" as a chorus. They work better as separate songs ...

my first instinct was to go with "Sad Punk" but I'm gonna listen to this album again and get back to you guys...

Why
do cupids and
angels contin
ually haunt
her dreams
like mem
ories

^this is the album's peak

I love that song too. Weird that it gets overlooked in discussions on the album, being the opener and all.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, December 15, 2008 11:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The guitar shredding on the opener is part of why I love this album so much. It sounds like being shot into space.

Favourite Pixies album, and "Alec Eiffel" is probably my favourite Pixies song, so that would be a logical choice. Then again, I'm not sure this is an album for logical choices.

The title track is a great opener, and every time it cranks its way up to "this song is twice occurred / and now it's time to go away / on holiday" renews my conviction that this is my favourite album. "Letter to Memphis" is the song that's in my head for weeks after every time I play it. "Space" and "Subbacultcha" total this-is-what-the-Pixies-do (by which I probably just mean "shouty but cryptic") tracks and near-perfect at it. "The Sad Punk" is another contender for me... agh. Choices.

But probably Alec Eiffel, for the sheer rush of the choruses and the riff snaking dizzily round wordplay-packed lyrics.

Voted "Sad Punk" despite the lurking suspicion that "Motorway to Roswell" might turn into a personal favourite. But Sad Punk was my way into the album, and everytime I hear the last chorus, slowed way down with Joey playing those unfuckwithable guitar lines, I get that patented pop sugar-speed-dopamine rush all over again.

Plus I like that little gentle guitar coda: it reminds me of the BH Surfers' Sweet Loaf!

somebody! get over to sven's best band ever nominations thread and nominate the PIXIES!!! Do it for your school!!!

Subbacultcha!

does it make me lame that this was the first pixies album i ever heard? i got to the party pretty late, i suppose.

does it make me lame that this was the first pixies album i ever heard?

As long as it wasn't the first, last and only.

My first too! But I was only 17 in '91.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The only half-decent tracks on this are Alec Eiffel and planet of sound. Really poor album overall.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Distance Equals Rate Times Time" – 1:24 1

Aww, this makes me sad, but I guess there really are a bunch of great songs here to vote for.

Alright, at least one vote per song!

Whoa, didn't expect Planet of Sound to be in the Top 3.

I'll start the next one of these after the new year, to ensure maximum participation.

it's disorienting to begin with a Kim Deal-sung track,
Is this true? Always sounded like francis to me.

Yeah, that's def. not Deal singing the first song.

it's Black Francis, I always thought.

yes

Yeah I always thought it was Charles as well.

Sorry I missed this poll, but I would've voted for Alec Eiffel so I'm glad it won. This might just be my favourite Pixies album, and they are my favourite band ever. Gonna listen to this today I think.

OK so this is sorta funny and awesome. Pixies on Letterman jamming out with Paul Shaffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzuoXDC9ESw&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/profile.php%3Fid%3D1721915738%26ref%3Dnf&feature=player_embedded

it is so weird when they make bands do that.

i think there's a feelies clip of them playing with shaffer's band from around the same time

How awesome! Nice find! Great Keys Paul!

"Alec Eiffel" doesn't seem like that great of a song to me.

What was the great record that Black Francis bought which samples the song from Washington State?

we went to the store and bought something great
which samples this song from washington state
go
go little record go
it is named by
some guy named joe
and the words
are the letters of the words

Some cryptic clues here. Internet search doesn't turn anything up.

i can't believe palace of the brine got only one vote
i was bout to start a 'pollace of the brine'

I always hear Palace of the Brine and Letter to Memphis as two parts of the same song, and as much as I love Palace, Letter is a monster.

yeah, i do too! they're definitely nicely paired together ...

not to get all Paul is Dead but could it be:
band from Washington State = Nirvana
sampled =ripped off
by some guy named joe = Joey Santiago,the Pixies
?

it's a toy that he bought, not a record

what gives you that impression

Don't buy the Nirvana thing, since I don't think they sounded much like Pixies before Nevermind (which was released the same week as Trompe le Monde). Mr. Que's assertion is intriguing.

i think Black Francis explained it in an interview i read in magazine a long time ago--i think it was Musician magazine?

xpost
ok, yeah, that kind of blows out that theory.

i'm a little pissed at myself for missing this poll!

i've grown to fucking love the title track. tho i always jammed to UMass growing up

i got the impression that the little toy made a song when you pressed the button, and it's in the song after he sings that line

yeah there is a tinny little melody just there. nice! although shame the nirvana idea doesn't fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd7tDdM709w

I feel stro-oh-oh-ong
I feel lucky

"Distance Equals Rate Times Time" – 1:24 1

this was me fwiw

I HAD ME A VISION!

If Letter to Memphis wasn't on this album, I would've voted with you.

I haven't listened to this album for well over 10 years, probably a lot more than that, but tonight Spotify is my friend. I didn't think I liked it (TLM, that is), but listening back I like more than I dislike.

Rubbish: Sad Punk, Head On, Space (I Believe In)

Great*: Alec Eiffel, Letter To Memphis, Subbacultcha, Lovely Day, Motorway To Roswell

*although generally marred by being about aliens

lol

I think the mid-song breakdown in "Sad Punk" where it gets all slow and dreamy, with the lazy guitars and the "evolving from the sea" lyrics, is possibly the most sublime, poignant moment in the Pixies' entire catalog.

^gets it

yeah that is an exceptional part of a song I don't like much. I wish the whole thing could've sounded like that, but then I guess part of its impact is that it follows all that shouting.

Letter To Memphis, since I prob. didn't vote the first time.

Alec Eiffel.

That video from Letterman I posted first time around is still pretty great.

JEFREY
WITH ONE F

*although generally marred by being about aliens

nothing is ever marred by this

The interference beam propagated by our DNA entangles with aether environment source information beams to cause our own 3-D manifestation within this 3-D universe, the interplay setting up conditions unique to each of us yet shared.

wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrobg thread, sorry

he's been taken over by aliens

motorway NO question

'Alec Eiffel' would have been my pick, but this is a seriously great record that was underrated for many years.

A very good album, though "Planet of Sound" is far and away their most overrated song, so I'm pleased by how relatively little it has been mentioned on the thread. (Its high placing is probably the Bradley effect kicking in.)

I'd have voted for "Palace of the Brine": close to as great a hook as Black Francis came up with, and the guitar textures are delish.

Its high placing is probably the Bradley effect kicking in.

I had to look this up. None the wiser for doing so tbh.

Just a bit o' slapstick, loike.

Totally would have voted for Motorway in a best Pixies song overall poll

First time I heard of the Pixies was Danni Minogue describing 'Planet Of Sound' as a "crock of shit" while reviewing the singles for Number One magazine

^ haha

also turrican otm

1993 interview with Frank Black by David Kushner:

M2: In "Distance Equals Rate Times Time" on "Trompe Le Monde", you "had a vision/there wasn't any television from looking into the sun". Is the vision still there?
FB: [Pauses] Yeah--I mean I love TV and I hate it. I love it 'cause I get to watch "Dragnet" every night at ten o'clock. I mean, I like it even when I'm fucking watching early 70's cop shows dubbed into German and I'm sitting in my hotel room going, "There's nothing on except this shit." I'm addicted to it like anybody else. [pauses] But when they finally get fiberoptics going and it becomes like CB radio, where everyone can fucking set up a video camera in their house and broadcast ... Try driving around in the city and listen to CB radio. Out in the open highway, it's just some truckers giving halfway useful information. But back in the city, it's some crazy guy sitting up in his room with masking tape on the CB, going, [yells] "RRRRGHHHH RRRRGGGHHH RRRRGGHHHH!!!" And there I am listening to the guy! He's working. The guy is broadcasting, and I'm fucking tuning in! When the phone's hooked up with TV, you're going to see a lot of bad things too--a lot of exploitation.

M2: Flashers.
FB: Pornography and all that kind of stuff, but there will be good things too. Your TV Guide is going to be like the phone book.

M2: Let's flip on the TV and see what Mrs. Smith is up to.
FB: [Laughs] Obviously, not everybody's going to be dancing around in front of the video camera. But, there's going to be plenty of people who will spend some of their leisure time broadcasting. Maybe a few people will see broadcast for what it is--power. The power of broadcast is very special.

Blank Frank OTM

I've always thought there was no more pronounced moment where you can hear a band running out of steam than halfway through Trompe Le Monde. I gave it another play recently and, yep, the second half is still dull.

tbf the second half of doolittle is markedly worse than the first, until the last three tracks where it turns out they were just having a breather

i will listen to TLM today, i loved the title track in the <2 minute poll

I think you mean “until the second song on side 2 where it turns out they were just having a breather”

uh guys, why did u not tell me about 'the sad punk' already

yeah this album's great

I think you mean “until the second song on side 2 where it turns out they were just having a breather”

Seriously. This album is too short and awesome to run out of steam, no more so than Bossanova, which also tends toward almost vamps that present first as filler but then get better and better, like "The Happening" or "Stormy Weather."

counterpoint: motorway to roswell.

ok, another counterpoint

Yeah, Roswell rocks.

this album is great from start to finish--at least the equal of doolittle--and bird dream of the olympus mons is their most beautiful song.

I wasn't on here when this this poll was conducted but that's just as well because I could never pick a favorite

My first Pixies album, and the only one I really like (but I like it a lot).

Tried a hundred times with the others and--a few isolated tunes aside--they always seem so dense and impenetrable to me compared to TLM. I recognize the problem is me, because everyone seems to love Surfer Rosa and Bossanova so much. Part of my problem with those records and with the band in general is the bass lines (which is weird because I love the Breeders): that ubiquitous dur-dur-dur-dur-DUR-DUR-DUR-DUR-dur-dur-dur-dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur root note thing (see also: Nirvana) drives me batty.

But Trompe Le Monde is genius and always felt to me like a precursor to Teenager of the Year (but weirdly, not to the s/t Frank Black album, which I have never loved)

tbf the second half of doolittle is markedly worse than the first, until the last three tracks where it turns out they were just having a breather

― imago, Saturday, April 27, 2019 3:24 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ridiculous dismissal of my favorite set of songs on doolittle

I woke up thinking about "Bird Dream" a few days ago, got me to put this album on again. I like it about as much as Bossanova tho tbh I never remember which songs are on which since I got the cassettes around the same time. They both have too many songs and not enough Kim Deal, but I like 'em.

this album is great from start to finish--at least the equal of doolittle--and bird dream of the olympus mons is their most beautiful song.

― J. Sam, Saturday, 27 April 2019 13:37 (one hour ago)Permalink

This album is better than Doolittle, IMO. I still think that Trompe le Monde is their best work.

tbf the second half of doolittle is markedly worse than the first, until the last three tracks where it turns out they were just having a breather

― imago, Saturday, April 27, 2019 3:24 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

Trompe Le Monde and Frank Black have his best songs.

oh Alexander, i see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwyO6sCGEWE

ridiculous organ

That's awesome :D

TLM is great all the way through but those first four tracks, my word

oh Alexander, i see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics

My favourite moment on the album. I love the title track and "Space" too. The best parts of the album are sublime but there are a few songs ("Planet of Sound", "U-Mass", "Palace of the Brine", "Subbacultcha") that just don't do much for me.

Cool organ and guitar solos on the Letterman version.

U-Mass and Space are the only weak songs on this record

I really enjoy "JEFREY WITH ONE F! JEFREY!" for some reason.

I agree with Sund4r's low points --though I'd add "Space". And the JAMC cover didn't really seem necessary so soon after the original. TBH, I actually really disliked this record the week it was released. The inaudiblity of Deal and BF's increasingly phlegmy vocals didn't help.

It's been mostly enjoyable right now though, after a very long break. "Letter to Memphis" might have been the most pleasing track this time around.

Planet of the Brine>Letter to Memphis>Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons is one of my favorite track sequences ever.

doesn't that span two vinyl sides? i guess they conceived it as a CD album

I really enjoy "JEFREY WITH ONE F! JEFREY!" for some reason.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Sunday, April 28, 2019

otm

Planet of the Brine>Letter to Memphis>Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons is one of my favorite track sequences ever.

― ☮ (peace, man), Monday, April 29, 2019 12:24 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

doesn't that span two vinyl sides? i guess they conceived it as a CD album

― imago, Monday, April 29, 2019 12:57 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't know that. At least Brine and Memphis aren't separated, but Bird Dream provides such a sense of release.

If they'd separated Brine and Memphis it would be some top class trolling of their vinyl-buying audience.

Was there much of a vinyl-buying audience for Pixies albums in 1991?

Percentage-wise maybe more than for Dire Straits albums, but small absolute numbers, I'd guess.

Interesting how on that letterman performance, it's essentially black francis + paul shaffer's band.
I wonder how that conversation went down... "ok, lovering, if you insist on being on stage, i guess you can stand in the back. here are some maracas."

To my understanding, that is how Letterman gigs went down back then. Here's Jellyfish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18nDeuf8ICQ

love the bit on the second subbacultcha chorus where the band stops and frank's still yelling. the timing!

Interesting how long they saved "Subbacultcha" up. I don't think I prefer that 1987 demo with the "D=R*T" chorus embedded in it but it raises unanswerable questions like "would I have liked it more if they'd reworked for it for Surfer Rosa?" LOL

Planet of the Brine>Letter to Memphis>Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons is one of my favorite track sequences ever.

― ☮ (peace, man), Monday, April 29, 2019 6:24 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this x 1000000000000000000000000000

And the JAMC cover didn't really seem necessary so soon after the original. TBH, I actually really disliked this record the week it was released. The inaudiblity of Deal and BF's increasingly phlegmy vocals didn't help.

It's been mostly enjoyable right now though, after a very long break. "Letter to Memphis" might have been the most pleasing track this time around.

Oh yeah, I like "Letter" a lot. Nice melody. I sort of like the "Head On" cover in the way I can enjoy the not-strictly-necessary covers on early Beatles and Stones albums. Do agree that BF's voice doesn't seem quite as strong; I can't rate this as highly as Doolittle.

(xposts) I've got to say I'm glad they made 'Distance...' into a separate song, 'Subbacultcha' was never a favourite. This album is so much fun though, always makes me think of the seaside for some reason!

One time literally 10 years ago based on my recollection of where I was living at the time I posted the opening lines of Bird dream as a FB status update and Crut was like Are you OK??? and I had to reassure him I was fine and it was just a Pixies song.

Still AE for me even though I love at least 1/2 of these a lot.

I bought this on vinyl when it came out. LPs were already cordoned off to a small section at Newbury Comics Nashua. But I'd gotten the others that way, and wanted to keep the collection consistent. Liked it much much better than Bossanova, but in retrospect, I'd rank the highs equally.

At this point, Pod is probably my favorite thing out of the the Pixies/Breeders/Muses circle.

Of interest: Back when Paul Schafer played along with the musical guest on Letterman

Was there much of a vinyl-buying audience for Pixies albums in 1991?

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, April 29, 2019 7:25 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Percentage-wise maybe more than for Dire Straits albums, but small absolute numbers, I'd guess.

― dorsalstop, Monday, April 29, 2019 7:34 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I took a deep dive browsing for vinyl on eBay recently, and I was shocked to discover Columbia House made and distributed records up into the early '90s, including editions of Nevermind etc.

I really enjoy "JEFREY WITH ONE F! JEFREY!" for some reason.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Monday, 29 April 2019 00:01 (fifteen hours ago) Permalink

This was a bit of a rallying cry among all the other dorks & weirdos in my HS.

A few yrs later I was with UMS's old band who were playing a really odd "benefit" (?) in Fargo, ND, anyway for some reason there was an MC, a local high school kid who wore a tux and was super awkward and was intro-ing the bands, which was extra weird cuz there was like 50 people there maybe but so anyway when he got onstage he introduced himself as "Hi I'm Jefrey, with one F", and later on I was "the Pixies reference made me laugh" and his totally stone faced reply was "what?"

from the Eric Drew Feldman (ex- Beefheart/Magic Band, Pere Ubu, Residents) wiki page:

Feldman met the Pixies' Frank Black in 1991, when Pere Ubu were touring as the Pixies' opening act, and later played keyboards on the Pixies' Trompe le Monde (1991) and toured with them. He can also be seen in the video for "Alec Eiffel". Eric's brother Jef also played on the song "Space (I Believe In)" from the same record and was the inspiration behind its lyrics.[2]

I remember an interview at the time that confessed they were out of songs and needed something to take up the space so wrote a song literally about that.

And the guitar solo starts with the melody from Bob the Builder.

More from the longbox era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHD7OZMnIUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OubtF2_suc

was reminded of:

#1: how BF used a flanger on vox for this tour
#2: how much the band didn't like each other by this point

I don't think they ever liked each other!

David Lovering always had the best sounding drums, especially his cranked snare.

I was so excited when the "Planet of Sound" CD single was released.

Kim's playing on the end of "Bird Dream" is really great (I got new headphones haha).

it's just PIXIES, Dennis!!1

i remember that i was disappointed by this album when it came out and didn't buy it. bossanova i got as lp as a birthday present from a friend. together with the blue aeroplanes swagger my first indie records. and i liked bossanova which i found light and sunny quite a bit. bought doolittle and surfer rosa/come on pilgrim on cd shortly afterwards. doolittle has always been my fave. i think i should relisten to trompe le monde, it seems to have aged well.

I think each of the Pixies albums could be their best, with the exception of Bossanova, which ironically was my favorite for the longest time.

The best parts of the album are sublime but there are a few songs ("Planet of Sound", "U-Mass", "Palace of the Brine", "Subbacultcha") that just don't do much for me.

Ha, I love all of those songs!

I remember seeing the 'Gouge' documentary in the late 90s, where someone like Dave Grohl presents the idea that only up to Doolittle was considered their classic period which got a big WTF from me at the time.

I wish a scan of Danni Minogue describing Planet Of Sound as "a crock of shit" in Number One magazine would show up somewhere.

Smash Hits. Enjoy. One page over her own LP is reviewed as slightly better than Electronic's.

"roooooooar"

:) Scans of pretty much every page of pretty much every issue of Smash Hits here. Found myself preferring Neil Tennant's 1984 singles reviews over sleep at 3am last night.

wow those Danni reviews are kinda fun/mostly wtf

Living Colour "sounds a bit like Paul Simon"

Thanks! Could have sworn it was Number One

Did Neil Tennant ever give The Icicle Works a bad review? Ian McNabb charmingly wished death on him on Twitter a few years ago

Besides, Alfred, I've seen others suggest that the album should have been sequenced differently.

Someone on Spectrum Culture apparently gave it a shot, shortening the album to 11 tracks. I don't think it's entirely an improvement, but opening with "Letter to Memphis" and closing with "Motorway to Roswell" is a pretty great idea. Something close to a swap of Sides A and B (save for "Letter to Memphis" and "Motorway to Roswell" which I'd keep at both ends) may be on the right track.

It's temping to cut it down to the 10 or 12 best cuts and make like a 25+ minute album as a throwback to some the super-short rock LP's of the '50s. The fact that most of the songs are so short even goes along with the concept.

(Black Francis: “A lot of the arrangements were pretty short, and Gil suggested we lengthen them...I went out, picked up a Buddy Holly record and played him one of the songs, which was about a minute and fourteen seconds. I said: ‘Gil, there you go. It doesn’t get any more classic than this rock n’ roll right here. Look how short these arrangements are.’ He decided not to fight me on that point...") FWIW, the only three Buddy Holly albums released in Holly's lifetime ran for 25:59, 24:35 and 25:06 respectively.

I absolutely never play the Pixies anymore -- if I ever did; I never warmed to them like I did the Breeders -- but this remains my go-to album.

one of my favorite album endings, actually. "Motorway to Roswell" so devastating that I need a weird coda to let the pressure off.

(and 2022 has been my year of crying to "Motorway")