For the first time ever, I find myself delving into an album roughly as old as me with a review. Kudos to Aaron from The Upstart for this out of the box request. Who says we need to be promoting unknown indie bands constantly? Sometimes it’s fun to get critical of the classics.
I don’t consider myself to be an expert on music from this era by any means – far from it. My thought process going into this review was “Cool – now I’ll get to see why people rave about this band constantly.” And somehow, I wasn’t surprised to find this was the “Where is My Mind?” record. “Great,” you’re probably thinking, “this review will be a waste of my time.” Nope! I’m gonna shove some fresh perspective at ya.
One thing is clear on this album – the Pixies do whatever the heck they want. If a record can be considered a classic while embodying such an attitude, it seems almost ironic that the manufactured nonsense trends in top 40 music would take over the 90s and most of the past 20 years. The indie approach is rising again, but I digress. The drums take the front seat in the record – this is clear from the opening measures of “Bone Machine” to the closing statements of “Brick is Red.” The production throughout is raw in way that we hardly hear today, yet the tone of the songs is pretty nonchalant throughout.
Highlights include the hit “Where is My Mind?” – this almost seems too obvious to point out. The oft covered tune is that way for a reason – it has a catchy, poignant riff and a chorus that is holding back enough to seem almost ironic that it still sticks with you. “Break My Body” is the first obviously punk track on the record – at least to me. Hearing this, the fast paced “Something Against You” and “Broken Face” and others I can see where more recent counterparts like MXPX get their influence. The eerie, shrill vocals of the latter might irritate some – I know they caught me off guard. In contrast, the vocals in “Gigantic” are warmer and easier to digest.
Getting back to the nonchalant nature of the record, we hear what sounds like casual chatting closing out the already quick “I’m Amazed” while the riff in “River Euphrates” sounds so natural it might as well have emerged in some basement jam session. The shrill vocals are very casual too and definitely give me the vibe that they were recorded effortlessly.
So, my final assessment of Surfer Rosa? I am not blown away, per se. I enjoyed this eccentric alternative punk record that obviously inspired many of today’s bands in that vein and I emerge from the experience for the better. Now to start balancing out my iTunes library with more stuff that didn’t come out in the past five years…
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