Pixies - "Head Carrier"

Pixies are one of the most iconic, influential, and honestly most important alternative rock bands of all time, and for good reason,  just look at the list of artists they've influenced.  For the most part, their first four albums are some of the most iconic in the genre (although I'm not exactly much of a fan of "Trompe le Monde", never have been).  However in recent years, Pixies have been very active, with questionable results to say the least.  When they first reunited it was really exciting, as the band was playing all of their older material.  Then, we have "Indie Cindy".  Oh BOY.   "Indie Cindy" was Pixies first album in 13 years, and when I say it was one of the worst albums I've ever had to review, I'm not joking.  Needless to say, after that I thought Pixies were done.  But no!  Here we are, two years later sitting here with "Head Carrier".

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

(A classic for ya, if you haven't listened to "Doolittle", you really ought to).

“Head Carrier” starts off with it’s title track.  At first, the instrumentals actually sound focused for the most part.  The Pixies while they’ve released some questionable material, at least you can say they’re confident.  The only thing I’m not totally buying is that guitars which are a bit too chugging for my liking.  Joey Santiago’s guitar work has always been only part of the Pixies recipe, but on this it’s the main focal point and it’s just a little too much.  As far as vocals go, Black Francis’s vocals have aged fairly well, and sound more on point here then they have the last few years.  The vocal melodies during the verses are fine and all, but the hook on “Head Carrier” is a flop and doesn’t flatter Francis at all.  Even the lyrics aren’t terrible, not nearly as memorable as they once were, but not horrible.  Everything on this opener realistically isn’t that bad.  It’s just, you know, not that good either, and it most certainly sounds very tame.  “Classic Masher” is up next, and for the most part it has a lot of the same positives and negatives.  The instrumentals that start us off here they’re pretty solid.  However I’m starting to realize a very bad trend.  This all just sounds so fake to me.  More or less, tracks like “Classic Masher” and a BUNCH of other tracks on here come off as The Pixies doing an impression of themselves in their glory days.  Lyrically, this is absolutely boring beyond belief, seriously if the Pixies heard this track in the 80’s they would have thought it was so uncool.  The vocals from Paz Lenchantin here are ok and all, but at the end of the day all they really do is make me miss Kim Deal so much (Unless that was Pixies intention.  If it was, man did you guys succeed).  As “Classic Masher” goes on, instrumental wise it stays strong, and sure there are some catchy moments.  But my God, this is borderline pop rock, and that’s something that I thought I’d never say about The Pixies.  Shockingly, “Baal’s Back”, the next track, seriously blows me away.  Right off the bat this tune has a whole lot going for it.  The instrumental here is fierce, with a crunchy guitar riff packing plenty of bite.  Black Francis here sounds like a damn monster, crushing these vocals just as he would have in the early 90’s.  Hell, there were tracks on “Doolittle” and “Bossanova” that didn’t pack as much of a punch as “Baal’s Back”.  But here’s my problem with all of this.  “Baal’s Back” proves that Pixies can still write a solid tune.  I mean it’s short, it’s aggressive, it’s catchy when it has to be, what more can you ask for?  That being said, why the hell is everything else so damn inconsistent?  Up next is “Might As Well Be”, a much easier track on the ears, but honestly it’s just as entertaining and well-penned.  The intro is a little awkward, but Pixies clean up their act pretty quickly here.  Francis’s vocals here sound just about as solid as they could be, and his melodies he shares with Lenchantin actually go over very well here.  Now back in the early 90’s,  Pixies were known for their unbelievable shifts between loud and soft dynamic in tunes, the bells during the chorus on “Might As Well Be” actually do wonders to the softer sound here.  It’s far from perfect, and it’s clearly not as expertly crafted as their songs once were.  But call me crazy, but I like this track a lot, the melodies are just so darn likable.  It’s been a sloppy album so far though, an it’s only going to get sloppier from here on out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UVaEAOlwA8

I mean this goes without saying, but this album here is messy messy MESSY.  “Oona” I seriously have faith in when I first hear that intro using a little buildup.  However that buildup goes absolutely nowhere and falls completely flat.  Tracks like this are seriously just so painful to listen to.  Lyrically, if Black Francis and the rest of the Pixies heard this 30 years ago they would have been disgusted by this.  The Pixies may sound completely comfortable with this track, almost too comfortable.  But honestly I can’t take “Oona” seriously one bit.  Hearing tracks like this worry me for Pixies future.  They sound like they think they know what they’re doing completely, that they still have their sound down to a science.  Clearly, they don’t, and it only gets worse.  “Bel Esprit” later on is just about the blandest thing here, and that’s saying something.  At this point in the album, you can argue that half of the tracks on “Head Carrier” sound insanely similar, and that’s because they do.  By the time we get to “Bel Esprit, even the melodies are beginning to blend together, it’s bad.  No, it’s not a bad song, but seriously this sounds like at least 3 other songs on here.  A lot of these songs may be catchy and all, but they have no character to them, and thats where this album fails the most.  Take for example “Tenement Song”.   There are a few tracks on here, and I stress only a few, that have some meat to them.  “Tenement Song” right from the opening bars is just so bland and lifeless, even during the catchy, solid chorus.  But outside of that, nothing is really happening at all.  Lyric-wise there is literally nothing to grasp on to.  The Pixies are playing it safe, way too safe.  Hell this album couldn’t be any safer if it had a helmet on.  But after all these complaints, I sit here and think to myself “Ya know, this is still better than their last album, so at least they're progressing”.  THEN I hear “All I Think About Now”.  This is easily the most painful thing I’ve had to listen to all year, and if you heard it you know exactly why.  Before, Pixies were just attempting to work with the same old formula trying to make it work.  But on “All I Think About Now”, they’re literally ripping themselves off in one of the most awkward moments I’ve heard all year.  To go deeper into it, literally seconds into this one they rehash the guitar line from “Where Is My Mind”, one of their most well known tracks.  Paz Lenchantin’s vocals here are actually really solid, but everything else about this gets under my skin like you wouldn’t imagine.  The other instrumentals here aren’t really any better, the main focus though remains the focus as it blares out desperately trying to reclaim some of The Pixies lost fans.  “All I Think About Now” is painful to hear on so many levels, but Francis’s vocals and performance here save it if only a little.  

This album is seriously a rough listen, especially when you have so much respect for The Pixies and what they’ve done in their career.  God lets freakin end this already so I can go listen to “Doolittle” or something.  The instrumentals that quickly roll in on “Talent” have a little force behind them which is nice to hear, the vocals that come in aren’t that bad either.  Lyrically though, this one is so bizarre, and almost makes me not enjoy it.  Not that these are bad lyrics, they’re just strange.  The music of Pixies was once filled with great imagery and consisted of lavish imaginative passages.  “Talent” is a fairly straightforward track about the music imagery, very odd.  Lyric wise, I’ll pass, but everything else on this track is solid.  “Um Chagga Lagga” was one of the early singles dropped from the album, and it’s a fairly solid tune.  Francis here sounds great, and oddly youthful and energetic.  The lyrics are almost goofy here, but on this track it actually works pretty nicely.  “Um Chagga Lagga” could have used some better melodies and a stronger chorus, but besides that, it’s not bad.  You know I seriously wish I could love this album, but it’s just so freakin sloppy.  “Plaster of Paris” starts off smooth with some of Joey Santiago’s smoothest guitar tones on the entire album (Which no, that isn’t saying much, but roll with me here).  This track isn’t that bad, but once again it’s seriously not that good either.  Instrumentally “Plaster of Paris” is solid, but as far as lyrics go this one rolls by without a single memorable line.  Finally we have the finale, “All The Saints”.  Right from the get-go, this one sounds bland, and what do you know, it is.  The guitars here once again sound pretty solid, but everything else is very hard to grasp and even harder to enjoy. I seriously wish I could like this album more.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5etbxk-nIs8

Rating : 6.4/10

Give A Listen To: Give A Listen To: “Um Chagga Lagga”, “Baal’s Back“, “Might As Well Be Gone”, "Talent"

Overall Thoughts:  You know in a perfect world I would love for them to drop another amazing album.  But man is their formula messed up.  Almost every track here has some really solid features to it, but also have really obvious flaws.  At the end of the day, these tracks aren't the worst thing I've heard all year, but they're really not that great either.  Hey, at least it's better than "Indie Cindy".