From the opening bars of DOOLITTLE, the Pixies’ brilliant duality comes into focus. Chiming guitar streaks waft over an AOR-ready riff, while vocals bark out references to a deliberately obscure culture. “Debaser,” for instance, finds singer/songwriter Black Francis alluding to “Chien Andalou,” Spanish director Luis Bunuel’s surrealist film renowned for a scene where an eyeball is sliced.y.

The Pixies’ calling card is their calculated sonic mayhem. Francis and bass player Kim Deal weave vocal harmonies of inimitable dissonance as guitarist Joey Santiago’s leads ring like air-raid sirens. DOOLITTLE perfectly captures The Pixies’ refusal to be categorized into one form of musical identity. The album’s most gorgeous melody is wrapped around the words “cease to exist, giving my goodbye,” and crowned with the title “Wave Of Mutilation.” The rest of the album follows suit, and even the love songs bear Francis’ warped humor, boasting titles like “Tame” and “Dead.”

DOOLITTLE is quintessential Pixies. Unflinching in their abrasion, the group created some of the best, most intriguing rock music of the early 1990s.

Tracklisting
1. Debaser
2. Tame
3. Wave Of Mutilation
4. I Bleed
5. Here Comes Your Man
6. Dead
7. Monkey Gone To Heaven
8. Mr. Grieves
9. Crackity Jones
10. La La Love You
11. No. 13 Baby
12. There Goes My Gun
13. Hey
14. Silver
15. Gouge Away

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (11/28/02, p.94) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…[Featuring a] breathtaking mix of noisy, almost surflike guitars, sweet pop melodies and primal-scream-therapy vocals…”

Q (1/03, p.69) – Included in Q Magazine’s “100 Greatest Albums Ever”

Alternative Press (7/95, pp.78-79) – Ranked #13 in AP’s list of the ‘Top 99 Of ‘85-’95′ – “…The fractious combination of [Black] Francis’s over-the-top but strangely relevant lyrics and vocals, and the band’s unsettling melodicism reached its epitome in 1989’s DOOLITTLE…”

CMJ (1/5/04, p.26) – Ranked #2 in CMJ’s “Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1989″

Blender (Magazine) (p.86) – 5 stars out of 5 — “DOOLITTLE offsets ROSA-style punk with painfully lovely expanses.”

The title might be French for “fool the world,” but with Trompe le Monde, the Pixies weren’t fooling anyone: this was essentially Black Francis’ solo debut. It focuses on Francis’ sci-fi fascination and lacks any Kim Deal songs; even her backing vocals are far and few between. Yet the band sounds revitalized on Trompe le Monde, as if it were planned as their last hurrah. The raucous “Distance Equals Rate Times Time” and the explosive cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” are fairly straightforward, but the lyrics remain quirky on “Planet of Sound,” a song about a Martian who lands on Earth, and “Palace of the Brine,” a tribute to sea monkeys and Utah’s Salt Lake. He even disses hipsters and pretentious students — basically, the Pixies’ fan base — with nasty little digs like “Subbacultcha”’s “I was wearing eyeliner/She was wearing eyeliner” and “U-Mass”‘ “It’s eduuucaaationaal!” Musically, “Trompe le Monde”’s psychedelic sheen and “Alec Eiffel”’s atmospheric keyboards prove that the Pixies’ sound wasn’t defined by Steve Albini-style rawness. There’s also more emotional depth: “The Sad Punk” features the strangely poignant bridge “And evolving from the sea/Would not be too much time for me/To walk beside you in the sun,” and “Letter to Memphis” is a heartfelt, if cryptic, love song. Though Trompe le Monde doesn’t sound quite like the Pixies’ other work, Come on Pilgrim’s spooky beginnings, Surfer Rosa’s abrasive assault, Doolittle’s deceptively accessible punk-pop, and Bossanova’s spacy sonics helped make Trompe le Monde a rousing swan song and a precursor to alternative rock’s imminent success. Whether that means their music remained pure or they missed their chance to cash in is debatable; either way, the Pixies are one of America’s greatest, most influential bands.

Tracklisting
1. Trompe Le Monde
2. Planet Of Sound
3. Alec Eiffel
4. Sad Punk
5. Head On
6. U Mass
7. Palace Of The Brine
8. Letter To Memphis
9. Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons
10. Space (I Believe In)
11. Subbacultcha
12. Distance Equals Rate Times Time
13. Lovely Day
14. Motorway To Roswell
15. Navajo Know

Professional Reviews
Spin (12/91) – “…As they’ve gotten more popular, the band has gotten more rocking AND prettier, more grandiose, stranger: better…”

Q (10/91) – 4 Stars – Excellent – “…an unqualified triumph…Several of the songs here manage to combine furious garage riffing with sudden flashes of pop melody…”

Melody Maker (12/91) – Ranked #19 in Melody Maker’s list of the top 30 albums of 1991.