Track Listing

1. Bone machine
2. Break my body
3. Something against you
4. Broken face
5. Gigantic
6. River euphrates
7. Where is my mind
8. Cactus
9. Tony's theme
10. Oh my golly
11. Vamos
12. I'm amazed
13. Brick is red
14. Caribou
15. Vamos
16. Isla de encanta
17. Ed is dead
18. The holiday song
19. Nimrods jon
20. I've been tired
21. Levitate me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2165 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Before the Breeders and Frank Black, there was this Massachusetts quartet, playing hardcore's rush and terseness against the acoustic grit and the minor-key flourish of Latin pop. Their first full-length album is their starkest, harsh and trebly, with the drums right in your face and songs edited to eliminate any note that's not absolutely necessary. Singer Black Francis yelps away about destroyed bodies and the river Euphrates, alternately acting cryptic and crazed. Kim Deal, then calling herself "Mrs. John Murphy", contributes the highlight, "Gigantic", a creepy anthem about childhood voyeurism. The playing is snarly and tricky but unfailingly tuneful, and the hooks come out of nowhere--hiding behind the noise--and bite down hard. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

Noisy, never catchy, unique.
This is an album which needs repeated listening. You think it will grow on you, but it never does and forever sounds fresh and original.

Like a snort of ammonia on a runaway toboggan down a snow-covered alp
Crikey, where do you start to review this? Although the album Doolittle first won me over to the wonderful Pixies, it was their first, audacious recordings, that I now see as their best. On Surfer Rosa & Come on Pilgrim, a combination of their debut album and EP, there is a reckless energy that manages to be both incredibly abrasive, wonderfully melodic and dead sexy...the stuff of euphoria

Whilst it easy to analyse what went into the songs, it is almost impossible to explain what made these tunes so addictive, so heady. Black Francis' riveting vocal carries most of the songs with both menace and dark humour... from the complete gaga madness of Broken Face, to Cactus, the creepy fetishistic letter to a lover. Joey Santiago had a unique guitar style and sound that later became almost a trademark for grunge. Kim Deal's (credited as Mrs. John Murphy on the sleeve notes) strangely awkward bass playing, her slacker indie-kid vocal, David Lovering's relentless drumming style, Steve Albini's classic rock n roll production values. The contrast from dark-to-light, playful to lairy. The throw-away but drum-tight feel to the whole album is a real winning formula.

Pixies were to become the godfathers of Grunge, and a major influence on the young Kurt Cobain. According to Wikipaedia, they got their name from a random pick out of the dictionary. The definition of Pixies was 'mischeavous little elves' and I reckon that sums them up better than anything... Raw, reckless, riveting.

invigorating
I can't remember if this was the first Pixies record I bought on purpose, or whether it just happened that way. Nevertheless, it was, and I'm so glad. This is a masterful record. It's one of those that just makes you wonder where it came from. How can something so simple be so good? Is it just chance, is it magic, did the Pixies know the music they were making was this good? It is magic. Let there be no question on that score.

There are songs on this record that make you love it immediately: Bone Machine, Break My Body, Broken Face, Gigantic, Where Is My Mind, Caribou, Nimrod's Son, I've Been Tired, Levitate Me... and there are some that should be in that list, but I don't recognise them by their titles! Then there are others that you don't realise that you like them until you hear them out of context and don't recognise them... and then when you do recognise them you realise you've liked them all along.

The songs ARE simple, but at the risk of sounding like an idiot: they are complex in their simplicity. Essentially there are only ever two guitars, one bass, one drum kit, minimal overdubs - but the ways these instrumentations are manipulated and used add those magical touches that grab you by the heart and squeeze. Sometimes everyone stops, then the rhythm guitar comes in, then the vocal and then.... EVERYONE! It's invigorating. Yes, two guitars but they are used like one. Instead of a rhythm guitar with a lead guitar that elaborates on the chords, Joey Santiago's leads screech and scratch and contort and contrast. Essentially, it's an original use of dynamics that takes these songs [and they are already good songs] and makes them special.

People often go on about the Pixies having done "the Nirvana thing" first - i.e: quiet verses, distorted choruses - there's even a Pixies documentary called "LoudQUIETLoud". Well sure, Kurt Cobain may have said that he was trying to copy the Pixies, but really if you actually listen to this record, any comparisons between the two bands are meaningless. There are only 3, maybe 4 songs at most that are as simplistic in their arrangement as Nirvana's music. And that's not to detract from Nirvana's legacy. There's nothing wrong with simplicity when it's backed up with other qualities that Nirvana had in spades. The Pixies' music SOUNDS raw and untamed, but really it's very delicate and intricate. And that's part of its genius.

Truly, it's a record that you can return to, and that will continue to surprise you and excite you every time. Let this record be a rallying call. Let it remind us, in these days of overproduction and every band sounding the same, that rough, grating, grinding records can have a power of their own.

Buy this, then go and buy all the other Pixies records. All of them. The production quality differs, but there are gems on every one of them.