Come On Pilgrim (1987)
No hooks (except maybe on “Vamos”), lots of stupid lyrics (including “Vamos”) and Black Francis’ sometimes annoying voice lead to a total clunker.
Grade: D-
10/17/23: “Vamos” is better on ‘Surfer Rosa’, rendering this completely irrelevant. And embarrassing.
Grade: F
Surfer Rosa (1988)
Solid, solid. The decent songs just keep on coming, with only minor setbacks (what the hell were they thinking with “Tony’s Theme”??). Definitely worth owning; it’s got some great rock guitar on it. Just don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics.
(“River Euphrates”, “Where Is My Mind?”)
Grade: B+
2011: I still hate “Tony’s Theme”, which I could have written in about 3.2 seconds, but every other song is decent. Which is good and bad. “Where Is My Mind?” is the only one that REALLY sticks, and in today’s age, that’s dangerous. Luckily it already sold oodles of copies.
Grade: A-
10/17/23: I’d LIKE to have more albums on my A List, but this is too much of a reach.
Grade: B+
Doolittle (1989)
Solid ALL the way through for fifteen songs is quite some achievement. Unfortunately, only “Monkey Gone To Heaven” even hints at anthem status. They try to make up for good-but not-great quality with mass quantity. If you like to be moderately interested in an album uninterrupted by filler or failure, you’ll love this. If you want killer tracks, not so much.
(“Monkey Gone To Heaven”)
Grade: B+
2011: Take ‘Surfer Rosa’, scramble it around, and VOILA!
Grade: A-
Bossanova (1990)
I used to absolutely ADORE this band, and especially this album. The love affair has fallen off, though, and I believe I can grade them impartially. The music is almost always interesting here, but (as with all Pixies releases) the lyrics are sometimes just plain stupid, and a nice instrumental becomes a tolerable bit of noise.
One of the worst lyricists that I actually LIKE (because he can write catchy tunes), Black Francis enjoys indulging himself far more than he enjoys pandering to his audience. Fair enough, but don’t expect anyone to stay for the words once the music starts to fade.
(“Rock Music”, “The Happening”)
Grade: A-
2011: Space-Age Prog-Rockish Mysticism livens things up a bit.
Grade: A
Trompe Le Monde (1991)
The drop-off is obvious, and this is their worst album since ‘Come On Pilgrim’. That said, it’s still pretty good (all of their albums since ‘Come On Pilgrim’ are at least pretty good). I’m just begging Kim Deal to start writing more of the lyrics. When given enough good musical backup, Black Francis’ subpar lyrics achieve a semi-mystical quality. Otherwise they’re there to be focused on and laughed at.
(“Alec Eiffel”, “Space (I Believe In)”)
Grade: B
2010: Spacey.
Grade: B+
Death To The Pixies (1997)
LOTS of music here, good and bad. It doesn’t get all their best songs, and dismissing “The Happening” in favor of the utterly f’n ridiculous “Tony’s Theme” is beyond my comprehension. But, as written previously, there IS a lot of good music here, easily outweighing the bad. Their “Greatest Hits” could have been so much better. But hey, you take what you can get.
(“Monkey Gone To Heaven”, “Rock Music”)
Grade: A-