Hipster's have treated the Kim Deal-less Pixies as blasphemy; the musical equivalent of a family break-up, with clear cut villains and a helpless damsel who had done no wrong, only to be kicked to the kerb for daring to do something, somewhere to someone.
Hilarity ensues when the new incarnation of Pixies begin releasing new music for the first time in nine years and eventually; compile said new releases in their first album in over two decades. I'd already covered EP-1 last year and had planned to do the same for EP-2 and EP-3 before a lack of Internet access at home put a halt to that.
But alas, like all good things, I played the waiting game and now, I can do both for Indie Cindy, the Pixies album many thought would never happen and that many now think shouldn't have happened.
As mentioned last September; evolution is a good thing for all bands and Indie Cindy showcases the most radical evolution of the Pixies, ever. The uptempo, shouty-quiet-shouty surreality in under three minutes of the late eighties is largely gone. Instead, the band stick to a more traditional brand of rock, songs are longer than ever before, riffs are mostly clean but Joey Santiago occasionally rewards the listener with something almost schizophrenic, making something like Snakes come alive.
Indie Cindy also, potentially, most surprising of all, is easily the most poppy of any Pixies release. The superb Ring the Bell is ditsy, chirpy pop-rock at it's finest, with an easy in the ears singalong chorus, seemingly built for live crowds. Similar again is Greens and Blues, while not as catchy, has a more ethereal tone, which again is exemplified with songs like Andro Queen and the stunning Magdalena 318.
While Black Francis' was one of music's most innovative if utterly bizarre story tellers; here. he seems a bit more laid back. The days of discussing a literal wave of mutilation, unadulterated violence and Biblical monsters are instead exchanged for qualms of unrequited love, fifties science-fiction and the ultimate terror; women.
The title track; with a catchy chorus of the one sided crush on a indie darling (an...Indie Cindy if you will), Francis' verse's offer a checklist of surreal, seemingly unrelated events of things his protagonist compares to her. Silver Snail in the meanwhile, offers a downtrodden, suicidally depressed protagonist who offers the listener to follow his silver trail, offering a twist that he might be worth something to someone.
Francis' vocals again have taken a transformation that should be expected. As mentioned last year, the young man with the intense screams is largely absent, although he does make an appearance in the superb Bagboy and Blue Eyed Hexe. Instead, Francis sounds surprisingly more vulnerable than ever before, often soft, matching the dream and ethereal quality of the quieter tracks and more defensive on the louder ones.
As mentioned again, the songs are extraordinarily long for the Pixies back-catalogue but surprisingly don't drag their feet. Whilst the formula is as old as rock music itself, for Pixies, it's new and unworn territory which somehow, feels fresh. If you're going into Indie Cindy and hoping for the sequel to Doolittle that's never happening, expect disappointment, burn your records, swear bloody vengeance et cetera, et cetera.
For me; I fount Indie Cindy an absolute thrill to listen to. It's hypocritical of me to go say I really like this album despite it's generic make-up and then have similar gripes to Bowie's last release.
But ultimately and most importantly of all; Indie Cindy is an album I can listen to easily, find something new, sometimes something shocking and still rank it up there with their back catalogue of truly astounding work.
For some, it's taken twenty years too long and it does depart too much from what made them fall in love with them in the first place. But for a straight-up, thumping and surprisingly fun at times rock and roll album, Indie Cindy marks a welcome return and I can only hope that we can get more sooner rather than later.
8/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
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