Pixies: Surfer Rosa

I had a strange urge to listen to the Pixies Surfer Rosa this morning. I don't know why, but when I first bought Surfer Rosa, I thought that it was a "alright" album. Not soon after that, it sank to the bottom of my listening library. Eventuality, I wanted to listen to Surfer Rosa more and more, so I downloaded it on my computer and started to listen to it again.


Believe me or not, this is one of the Greatest Albums of Alternative rock. Without it, we wouldn't have crazy, insane offbeat sounding rock as we know it. To be honest, I really don't understand why 4AD picked up The Pixies in the first place. Back then, 4AD was known for bands like the Cocteau Twins, Lush and Dead Can Dance. All of them, by the way, sound nothing like The Pixies. So for them to take this leap while recording showed some serious Courage by the label. And to top it all off Steve Albini recorded it! (If you don't know who he is look him up now!). Whichever way you see it Surfer Rosa paved the way for 90's rock. PJ Harvey, Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan cited this as a very influential work.

Track-By-Track Review.

Bone Machine
I really like the sound on the opening track. It is "very crisp" and somewhat "boxy" or in other words, this is stereo music. The fluctuating guitar playing the melody in the background is something that hammers this album home. The lyrics will make you laugh, and just putting it on the first track is awesome.Overall, a nice start to this album.

Break My Body
The guitar and the bass really gives this track legs, but it is mostly the bass that does it. The bass grows on you about one minute in and just want to keep listening and singing the chorus "Break my body, hold my bones". The drum break near the end of the song just ties everything together.

Something Against You.
Big Black is the first thing that comes into my mind when I hear this song. It must be Albini's influence again, because you can hear the same effect on PJ Harvey's Rid of  Me album.The rhythm section really picks up with the feedbacked vocals to give this song some punch. It is a little on the short side, but listen to it for lyrics.

Broken Face.
Musically, this song is similar to to the previous track, just more distortion, and better lyrics.

Gigantic
This is one of the songs that you just have to listen to  on this album. I really can't find anything wrong with this song, everything is solid musically and I'm just going to leave it at that.

River Euphrates
This one opens pretty well and is a pretty good song that talks about getting stuck in a Jeep by the Euphrates Rive.

Where Is My Mind
This is the other song that really stands out on this album. Just like Gigantic, I really can't break this song down. it is fine the way it is.

Cactus
"Cactus" is the one quiet song that every album has. Usually, when I run into the one quiet song, I have to just tough it out and finish it. I'm happy this time around because Cactus gets better as it goes on. Doesn't get very loud, but it works.

Tony's Theme
"This is a song about a superhero named Tony and its called "Tony's Theme"". I wish I got a cool super hero theme from the Pixies. I might have to ride around on my bicycle to get one.

Oh My Golly!
When I hear the drums on this song, I finally know that something epic is about go down. Oh My Golly is one of those songs that you just have to sing along to, even if you don't speak really bad Spanish. I'm happy that they picked up the tempo on this one. You can hear the extra song "You Fucking Die" if you let the song play.

Vamos
Vamos starts off kind of quiet and with more broken Spanish, but at 22 seconds or so the drums kicks in and this song starts to gain speed. Vamos has my favorite lyrics on this album and the one that sounds best music wise. Seeing that this is the longest song, I must guess that it is there to round out the album because the other two wind Surfer Rosa down a bit. The noise break adds a nice touch to this song.

I'm Amazed
This one has a great opening. To be honest, I would skip this song if it was on shuffle. But, if I was in the mood to listen to it then I would. Don't get me wrong, this is a good song, It just isn't at the top of my list for this album.

Brick Is Red
Things slow down some more on this one. I just listen to this for the lyrics, but just like the song before it you have to listen to the album in order to appreciate this song.

Overall, Surfer Rosa was a pretty awesome listening experience. I highly recommend this album, so go buy it/ download it now. It is around 30 minutes, so it is a quick, fun album.