April 22, 1999
Boston can be forgiven for giving us the overblown schlock rock of Aerosmith because that dirty water also fed the Pixies, one of the most inspired and influential bands of the last 10 years. Nirvana watered down the Pixies' sound for the mainstream and hit paydirt, and in a perfect world, every so-called "alternative" band since would give the Pixies half their profit. Surfer Rosa is a whirlwind of chaotic, dense, melodic art-punk - their undisputed masterwork clocks in at just over half an hour, 37 furious minutes that changed popular music.
Seminal noise producer Steve Albini puts The Pixies' sound into stark relief: Black Francis' keening shrieks, Joey Santiago's scraping, dissonant guitar, Kim Deal's metronomic bass and gorgeous voice, and David Lovering's whiplash drumming are balanced masterfully.
As the title indicates, Surfer Rosa highlights Francis' obsession with surf music and Spanish lyrics filtered through the band's punk sensibility. It's only partly noise for the sake of noise, however; the furious riff of "Bone Machine," the ethereal "River Euphrates" and "Oh My Golly!'s" high-powered flamenco strumming exhibit razor-sharp hooks and frenzied melody.
This album is high energy like sucking on a raw adrenal gland, their psychotic lyrics, extreme dynamics and hummable guitar lines blending into something nearly unprecedented (although the ground was scorched clear by the untouchable Pere Ubu), and certainly never matched since. For every brick-in-the-face chord cyclone ("Something Against You," "Broken Face") there is a deep, disturbed harmonic beauty ("Gigantic," "Cactus," "Where is My Mind?"). A top-ten desert island album for those lonely nights on the beach when the sunstroke fever makes your skull ache with the need for chaos.
- Jared O'Connor
undisputed masterwork