This review is part of a series looking back at significant albums on their anniversaries. Through the benefit of hindsight we will be viewing the album not just as it was released, but how it stands the test of time, as well as its place in the band’s discography and the genre in general.
4AD, Rough Trade – 28 Sep 1987
The EP that started off Pixies’ great “first stage”
I didn’t really get into Pixies until about 1990. In hindsight, I did realize that I had been introduced to them earlier as the dungeon master had their 1988 debut LP Surfer Rosa playing during a Middle Earth Role Playing session (D&D for Tolkien nerds). I can’t exactly recall if it was after Doolittle (1989) or Bossanova (1990) that I fell in with their music, but when I started listening, they quickly became a staple on my tape deck. Definitely one of my go-to listens in the latter half of high school along with bands like GWAR, The Dead Milkmen, and hometown* heroes Naked Raygun (*OK, I’m from the NW suburbs, not Chicago proper… it still counts).
To this day Pixies’ early work spanning from the Come On Pilgim EP and the four studio albums up to 1991’s Trompe le Monde still stand as some of the best indie music, if not some of the best music, ever. The band put out a new album on an annual basis between 1987 and 1991 and all of it was good. There are few acts that could sustain such output let alone make it more than worth your while (and, at the time, money for cassettes and, later, CDs).
At different stages of my Pixies fandom, different albums out of those five will be my “favorite” at the time (none of the latter albums, but we’ll get to that in a bit). In my old age that generally has vacillated between Bossanova (1990) and Trompe le Monde, for sure. But there was definitely a period in high school when I wore the heck out of my bootleg copy of Come On Pilgrim. For a while there it was definitely my fave.
The eight songs on Come On Pilgrim were culled from the band’s 17-song demo. The remaining nine tracks would eventually make their way out on subsequent LPs, or as B-sides to singles. The opening track “Caribou” really draws me in. Since my youth, and through the influence of my parents, I’ve always been a fan of 60s instrumental surf rock, and Pixies have used that style as one of the foundational pillars of their music. While a slow burner (especially at a time in my life when I was all about fast punk and metal), the song swells with power and emotion. I’d already been introduced to Black Francis’ vocal stylings so his dichotomy of gentle crooning and outright screaming wasn’t as much of a surprise as it probably was for first-time Pixies listeners, but it is still welcome.
The peppy “Vamos” and the catchy and fast “Isla de Encanta” (on which Francis’ Spanish-language lyrics, I was told at the time by a native speaker, was “very loose”) are fun songs. Subsequent trackss”Ed is Dead”, “The Holiday Song” , and “Nimrod’s Son” exhibit Pixies’ create song-writing and odd-ball (at the time) lyricism.
Rounding out the album is the one-two punch of “I’ve Been Tired” and “Levitate Me”. Black Francis’ storytelling to start the former, along with a playful rhythm make the song a classic. The lyrics are a kick, and Kim Deal’s backing vocals on the chorus are a key component. Meanwhile “Levitate Me” is a surprisingly epic song, one that few bands could ever hope to replicate. Francis barely wails on this one, instead allowing his lighter “crooning” voice carry throughout most of the song.
This EP would be the start of a run that would catapult the band to international stardom. However, there was tensions, particularly between Francis and Deal, that would simmer and stew (including a brief hiatus during ’89-’90), with the band eventually splitting in 1993.
Side acts were abound after the death of the Pixies (Frank Black, Frank Black and the Catholics, Breeders, Cracker and more), and the band finally decided to reunite in 2003. Pixies would tour in support of their early material for nearly a decade before prepping a new album. However, shortly before the release of that LP, 2014’s Indie Cindy, Deal would leave the band for good. She was originally replaced by The Muffs Kim Shattuck and, after she was dismissed from the band (apparently for stage-diving into the crowd after their set), A Perfect Circle‘s Paz Lenchantin would join, remaining the band’s bassist since 2014 until the present.
So where does Come On Pilgrim stand in the amongst all of Pixies material? Well, as I have said several times, it, along with the four subsequent LPs (and associated B-sides and such from that era) are simply top notch. Nigh untouchable. It was a grand introduction to the band, and while I lament that the full demo wasn’t released as an LP, since all of the remaining songs eventually made their way to our ears, I can get over that.
And if that was it, if Trompe le Monde was the end of it all, it would be stellar. However, Pixies started releasing more LPs over twenty years after Trompe le Monde and… well… they’re pretty much hit or miss for me. I don’t know if it is because the band burned out their creative juices both with that initial run of releases and their subsequent projects, or if Pixies’ style of music just isn’t the novelty that it was three decades ago. But the new albums just don’t hit as hard. Indie Cindy was a major disappointment (the production didn’t help with that, either. Lovering’s drums are presented as a wall of sound and detract from a lot of the songs, which is a shame). 2016’s Head Carrier LP was kind of all right and, to be honest, I didn’t even bother with Beneath the Eyrie (so maybe I should give it a try?).
For good or bad, there are three stages of the Pixies’ career. The first stage was simply awesome. The second stage, when the band was touring and playing those classics, was nostalgic. The third stage with the new albums is, overall, just average. I’m glad their happy and recording new music but, for me, I’ll just live in the past when we were cruising around town on a Friday night listening to Pixies on the car stereo.
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He’s lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.
