Doolittle

Last Pixies album for my project and it was a good one! Really nice mix of styles, has 6 of their Spotify top 10 here, this was just an overall great record. 4.5/5

(4.5) This album is such a perfect embodiment of teenage nostalgia. Need to go skateboard and drink mountain dew code red immediately. I just... don't get why they called it doolittle. when it doo so much...? Favorites: Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Wave of Mutilation, Mr. Grieves

This album is perfect and I pray at the temple of Kim Deal

Truly no skips - DEBASER

Doolittle is one of my most listened to albums (I do listen to a lot of music on shuffle, and Pixies were one of the first bands I liked when I got seriously into music in freshman year of high school or so: so they came up on shuffle a lot). A genuine masterpiece mixture of strong songwriting, punk energy, and chaotic results. Something about the album has aged perfectly, almost making you forget it was a late 80s record. Too many classic songs to talk about.

Very good. Muy bueno.

The pixies know how to do it they make albums that have 15 songs or so and they’re about 30 minutes long. This isn’t my favorite pixies album, but it’s still great.

One of my favorites.

Perfect album

Brilliant album from start to finish, Pixies at their best

Slicin' up eyeballs.

If the devil is six… Never thought this was my favorite Pixies album until today. It’s a masterpiece. And on top of “the hits” it includes Gouge Away my favorite Pixies song.

Banger fra de allerførste toner. Hvordan har jeg aldrig hørt den før

Crazy good record. Loads of bangers and I love the shoegaze-dragged-out ending of No 13 Baby.

First 5 rating! Loved this album will be 100% listening to it more, might get the vinyl

no tuve chance de volver a oirlo, lo haré pronto. pero indudablemente un cinco, de mis favs, la última vez que lo oí hace no tanto manejando sola x circuito medio me salieron los gritos de monkey goes to heaven y fui muy feliz

My fav

Fantastic. I enjoyed that...

Already very familiar with this album. Peak.

En gammel favoritt. Et av albumene som virkelig “peaka” min musikkinteresse. Her mikser Pixies myke vers med harde refreng, i det de kaller en loud-quiet-loud-stil. En herlig dynamikk som passer ørene mine utmerket. Det er så mange gode sanger her, som blant andre energibomben Tame, “pop”-perlen Monkey Gone to Heaven og spretne Mr. Grieves. Da kan det vanskelig bli noe annet enn en femmer. Top 3: Debaser, Hey, Crackity Jones

This is another one of those albums that had a profound effect on me when I first heard it. This is a perfect album, plain and simple, and you never know what you’re going to get from one song to the next. One moment you’re listening to a snarling, demented Black Francis shouting “tame” over and over again like some sort of sex crazed feral maniac, to the point where you’re ready to tear your shirt off in solidarity, and the next moment you’re riding the Wave of Mutilation and thinking about kissing mermaids. There’s this constant push and pull from one song to the next, often times crossing genres and time periods, all tied to together by hook after hook after brilliant hook. The lyrics barely make a lick of sense, but that unknowability comes with its own unique charm. There’s few albums I’ve listened to more than Doolittle, but I return with fresh ears every time because I can barely make heads or tails when it comes to what is being said half the time. The metaphors range from childlike to truly deranged, sometimes they’re not even in English, but then one will burrow into your head, and soon you’ll find yourself belting along to the chorus as if you knew the point along. It’s the kind of album you can return to and discover a new favorite song every time, as I have done time and time again over the years (with that said, “Hey” has been my reigning champ for some time now). I also can’t forget to mention the incredible bass lines from Kim Deal throughout. When I think of Pixies, I think of the opening notes in songs like Debasser and I Bleed. Deceptively simple, but an essential part in uniting all these incongruent ideas (of which there are many) into an album’s worth of songs.

When a band can pack 15 stupidly wicked tracks into 38 golden minutes we must pay strict attention. Look, here’s a banger, now we’ll have another one, on to the next one, now here’s the next one, how about the next one, over to another one, and now here’s another one, now it’s another one, listen to another one, now it’s the next one….

When starting this godforsaken project I had a think about what albums would be guaranteed, no question, perfect fives. This was one of them. Thoroughly enjoyed the re-listen too.

Fun

I love this album for it's whimsical weirdness. I was playing this a lot when it came out and my boyfriend wanted to know what it meant "if man is five, then the devil is six, then god is seven." He couldn't enjoy the song unless he understood the lyrics. Who the hell cares what it means. Make something up and enjoy the frickin' awesome song. Some people's kids... Obvious favorite is Monkey Gone To Heaven and Hey is a close second, but really, this album in total is amazing, start to finish.

It’s like the platonic ideal of an indie rock album. So good, purely enjoyable. Some catchy polished stuff, some raw stuff. Energy, verve, creativity throughout. Must-listen #280.

Some damn good rock music. The songwriting has always been strong with the Pixies, and their guitar riffs rock. Probably my favorite song is Here Comes Your Man, followed by Wave of Mutilation.

Crazy consistent

If I appear unresponsive, don’t check my pulse. Just hit play on “Debaser” and if I’m not smiling within seconds, I’m probably gone.

Certified classic. This band really did pave the way for all 90s and 00s alternative bands to thrive. Super ahead of its time, Doolittle blesses us with a noisy, off-kilter serving of genius pop songs. Seriously, you can hear where those bands, from Nirvana to Modest Mouse and all the way to Grouplove, received their genetic makeup. Perfect indie.

Craig: an album out of time. These guys were creating future rock Courtney: love this album. I remember more of the songs than I thought I did.

Masterpiece. Such a groundbreaking album

I've heard a lot a about this album and never given it a go. But wow, what a first impression, I'll definitely revisit this.

Better than I expected. They had a lot of hits on this album

This one…it’s everything to me. All time favourite side one track one (tied with Janie Jones). The epitome of cool. The sound track to all girl dance parties at King’s. Mixtapes. Jean jackets. Cigarettes. Playing the baselines on an acoustic guitar.You’re fluent in Spanish mid-record. This monkey’s gone to heaven, Hey, fucking Gouge Away. Masterpiece.

Love this album from top to bottom. Stone cold classic.

It's the best Pixies record! And it still holds up.

Bold, shameless. A hair less angular than Surfer Rosa. Not afraid to drop out all guitars. Lots of great stops. Frank Black not afraid to let his voice run wild, both in the gravel zone and the unbridled falsetto. Very late 80s new wave bass tone. So many hits on this, but surprisingly "Hey" really hit me today when I wouldn't consider it a top-tier well known Pixies song. Fuck it. every song is a classic.

One of my favorites!

Effortlessly cool. Your favorite band’s favorite band type beat. The shifts from punk to surf to anywhere else feel natural. Monkey Gone to Heaven is probably THE song of the record, but I am a bit partial to Debaser and There Goes My Gun for a little easier of a listen.

So. Many. Great. Tunes.

I am a middle aged white man. This is, as they say, my jam.

I'm like, "This is grunge!" I've heard the name and knew I had probably missed something back in the '80s and I was right. The precursor to so much music I would later love. Very cool album

As an album, it has lost its shine a little. Or Gil Norton’s production, perhaps. Like an ancient coin, dug up, but covered in mud and eroded by too many familiar hands. You can clean it up, but it will never have the value again it once had. A museum piece with a different, maybe greater value. But, yet, any of those songs on their own - sublime. Even the goofy ones. 4.5 I listened to the first seven tracks of this today in a rapture. It wasn’t until Mr. Grieves that I was able to catch my breath. Then I listened to the last 7 tracks in a rapture. Mr. Grieves, the man in the middle, is the only weak 2 minutes on the whole album. Why not cut him, despite his lyric carrying the album title? Well if Monkey Gone to Heaven carried right on into Crackity Jones I’d probably be dead by Hey, notwithstanding the fact of needing to flip the record after MGTH if I happened to be listening on Vinyl. Doolittle is a very special album - extra special a day after Adele’s ‘21’ - and though I expect I could argue half a mark off it at least (where’s the narrative logic in finishing with Gouge Away after Hey and Silver?) I don’t want to. I love this album. I won’t pretend I loved it from first acquaintance - Death to the Pixies was my introduction to the band and excepting Tame my favourite tracks were not from this album. It took years for Doolittle’s quality to become apparent. Whatever the lyrics mean this is a treasure chest of absurdly fluent, fun, inspired, idiosyncratic music-making. I will always love opening it. 5/5

I love this album - a classic.

My favorite Pixies album

4/1089 (A lot of glaze btw) I’ve heard a couple songs from the pixies, and I knew they were important in the music culture and they’ve influenced a lot, but I didn’t know how good some of their shit was. 9.6/10 I already love works in alternative rock and I think this is the golden status for any rock album I’m gonna listen to, this is amazing 😋😋😋😋😋😋

One of my favorites! Great memories 😀

Game changer. Loud, emphatic.

Everybody ripped this album off in the 90’s, yet no one came close to replicating its surreal brilliance. One of my most played albums.

My first experience with Pixies was in 2022, thanks to an unexpected phone call. A mate of mine was standing outside a concert venue when someone ahead of him in the queue handed him a free ticket, saying they had to leave. He called me to see if I wanted to join him. It was a Pixies gig, and although I didn’t know much of their music, I’m never one to turn down the opportunity to go to a free show. I listened to Doolittle on the way there, thought it was great, and the gig itself was incredible. I’ll always have a soft spot for this album because of that night, but even setting sentiment aside, this is essential alt-rock listening. It's full of great tunes, and you can really hear its impact on bands like Nirvana, who went on to shape the sound of the '90s.

foda!

22 albums in and this is my second Pixies album. Hell yeah. The All Mighty Generator smiles at me today. I gave Surfer Rosa five stars, but I heard this is their even better album, so let’s see. I needed to listen to it for a list thing I’m doing anyway so multitasking I guess. The opening bass of Debaser tells you all you need to know: in the words of a friend, “man, this thing just be straight bangers.” Ridiculously spectacular riffs—definitely something that inspired Nirvana. It’s definitely a lot more mature than Surfer Rosa, with more melodic guitar and a sound that’s like The Beatles got introduced to Husker Du and Violent Femmes then went surfing. The vocals are raw and the instrumentals are amazing, with that aforementioned melodic guitar, as well as some heavy, well-placed bass and lively drum fills. The big hit on this one, of course, is Here Comes Your Man, and it’s amazing. It’s also a perfect inflection point in the album: what comes before it is just banger after banger, and what comes after it offers a bit more of an odd edge. Both are quite fantastic. Not to date this review, but god I wish 6 7 hadn’t become a meme so I could more thoroughly enjoy this album. I was forced to stare off into the distance and contemplate due to that association. This is probably top 100 albums of all time, honestly, though. Recap: Favorite songs: Debaser, Tame, Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Silver, Gouge Away Least favorite song: N/A Comparisons: Zen Arcade, Abbey Road, Pet Sounds, Violent Femmes, Nevermind, Goo, The Stooges, The First Two Seven Inches Rating: 5/5

This was ridiculously good

Absolutely one of my all time favorites! I Believe (when I fall in love) brings goosebumps every time.

9/10

Grunge punk rock goodness. Has the spirit of punk but a melodic sensibility and range across it- this goes so hard. Captures something of the teenager to adult feeling where you are dealing with stuff in yourself while getting older and tryng to keep it together. Slaps. Very very recognisable. Great mix of heavy and light. Love the vocals, love the mixing, love the guitar tone, love the screaming, mix of controlled and wild

Pixies have tipped over into Weezer territory for me now where they’ve released more bad albums than good, but their early run can’t be beat. This album is such a perfect slice of the best alt rock of the period, with songs destined to be covered by pub bands forever. Cracking.

Back in high school I spent countless hours trying to convince my friends to listen to anything by Pixies. I never convinced any of them. It probably didn’t help that it was the mid 2000s and their moment in the sun was in the rear view. But you know what? I still think my friends missed out. This album is stellar. The bizarre and violent lyrics mixed with the grooving bass lines and erratic rhythms are all part of an amazing blend. I knew about half the songs going in, and each one sounded like catching up with an old friend. I will continue recommending this album to people, no matter how many hours of disinterest I get.

one of my all time favs, will happily relisten

I knew some of the songs from 1st Wave like Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone to Heaven. A really exciting listen!

I have always loved this album

A shambolic amalgam of noise rock and irresistible pop that veers back and forth seemingly at random between the two, this is arguably the high point for The Pixies. Great pop like "Here Comes Your Man" side by side with noise rock invectives like "Dead." A masterpiece that The Pixies would approach but never top in subsequent albums.

Thoughts before listening: One of the best albums from one of my favorite bands. This has a ton of iconic songs on it and is a prominent part of my record collection. The Pixies have been hugely influential on a lot of very good bands, and I am glad to have a reason to revisit this one. Review: Man you really forget just how many classic songs are on an album like this. There's really not a single skip on this entire album which is pretty rare for something with 15 tracks. The Pixies essentially created the loud quiet loud alt rock sound and that aesthetic can be found throughout this record. Its a sound that has become so synonymous with the 90s alternative scene that its effect can be easily lost when listening to the Pixies original material. Nobody else really sounded like this in 1989 even though LOTS of bands would sound like this over the next 10 years. Its a shame that the Pixies were largely overlooked during their original run, but it has been nice to see their resurgence as a successful touring act. there are too many bangers on this album to list them all, but a lot will be going on the playlist. 5-stars

Awesome noise, rough message

Winning a fucking amazing album of raw punk like it should be. Short powerful songs.

The best

Leuk album. Early grunge. Ik kende al een paar liedjes van dit album dus dat was fijn bij het luisteren. Fav track: gouge away Least fav: no 13 baby

Extraordinary record that oddly is so influential it doesn’t sound dated, at least to me.

Silly, simple, upbeat short songs. But it was this album that invented what people usually call "alternative rock". 100% classics!! #18 in my all-time top

this is like violent femmes meets weezer but for people who fuck

Yay

Formative record for so many people. Loaded with absolute bangers. Surfer Rosa and this one are the Pixies at their best. So good!!!

Another one I could listen to on vinyl! Have this thing memorized thanks to Rock Band. Wave of Mutilation coming in clutch.

If an album is on rock band, it should get a 5 star

meu histórico deixa claro que eu não sou mto fã de pixies mas pqp, esse é incrível??? parabéns pros profissionais

SE O HOME É 5, O DIABO EH 6. E SE O DIABO EH 6, ENTÃO DEUS EH 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dos albuns mais perfeitos do mundo foda-seeeeeeeeeeee. sempre que eu escuto eu fico de CARA como não tem UMINHA música ruim. meu deus do céu, cara. eh um dos mais influentes do final de 80/início de 90 e dá pra ver mto pq. é um misto perfeito de surf rock com punk, guitarrada maluca e o baixarão da kim deal tocando o terror!! NOVAMENTE, tudo que eu curto tem um pézinho nesse aqui. parabéns aí pros mano, obra-prima demais!

I think the only song I have heard before was Here Comes Your Man which is surprising because I was into a lot of alternative music at the time of this release. It sounds energetic as hell and brimming with cool sounds, ideas and lyrics

Loved them for a long time and I forgot how many bangers were on this album. So good

PEAKKK

BRILLIANT album, loved everything about it. I always enjoy Pixies when I hear them but never get stuck into their back catalogue. I will have to rectify that in the new year. Top Track - Hard to choose, toss up between Monkey Gone To Heaven or Silver

Peak

This album is essentially a forerunner to grunge. It pretty much sounds exactly like many of the bands that got popular in the 1990s. You can hear the alternating loud-quiet-loud dynamics here in every song. The vocalist isn't very good, and the lyrics aren't the best(they're still alright), but it's still a good sounding album. It's far from horrible, but it's just a bit too off-putting to be a truly perfect album. I think I could still give this five stars, though.

I went on a mission to get into the Pixies and see what the fuss was about... and was not disappointed! I've listened to Doolittle probably 5+ times this year and really like the album. I finally get why the Pixies were great and love some of these songs. "Debaser" was my most excited song to see at Shaky Knees this year and I was having the best time of anybody there! Legendary bangers, pretty legendary talents and some of the most influential rock music of my lifetime.

loud and weird but also catchy.

If the early Beach Boys were Gen X , this is what they would sound like when it's too dark for surfing. Absolute classic, hugely influential and ultimately the gateway drug to Pixies other albums.

This is the 1001st time I've listened to this album. So, yeah, I love it.

Proto Nirvana and Radiohead. Instant 5 stars.

You want pop songs with loud guitars and freaky, tense lyrics? This is it. Imma need anyone not giving this a 5 to relisten to it until you do. I can't believe that this was released in the 80s, it sounds so much better than the shit that was coming out a full 20 years after, although the people who ripped them off sold way more records. I get it though, there's a lot of intentionally rough edges on this. Black Francis (or is it Francis Black now?) oscillates between screaming at you and whispering into your ear. Kim Deal sounds like a creepy doll in the best way. Vocals on this record alone are so good. I only want to play with guitarists and drummers who think like these dudes. 3 minute songs filled with great grooves and guitar. This is a record where the hits are just as good as the deep cuts. Listen to the groove and guitar work on Wave of Mutilation closely, this band works so well together. This record may finish even stronger than where it started. Only blemish maybe is Silver, but it's not bad. I need to go hop on meetings now, maybe i'll revisit this to make a more coherent argument, but really you need to spend more time with this album or else I will not speak with you again. Absolute 5/5

Prolific and probably underrated in their prime. Those first five albums are absolu magnificent. Doolittle is jam packed with classics. Polished hooks and excellent production. Pixies is greater than the sum of its parts. We did get a killer Breeders alum out that raw deal though. Close to perfect album.

Fantastic and still holds up

One of my favorite albums of all time

Day 108 First time I’ve had one of those strange coincidences, I had a Frank Black album the day before this and mentioned Pixies were in my regular rotation and here we are. I love this album, debaser may be the best opening track of all time. Highlights Debaser Hey Gouge Away

# In-Depth Review: *Doolittle* by Pixies *(Released April 1989 – 4AD)* --- ## 1. **Lyrics – Surreal Sermons & Pop-Culture Parables** Black Francis wrote like a fever-dream preacher who’d main-lined Bunuel, the Old Testament, *Un Chien Andalou*, and *The X-Files*. - **Biblical gore** – “Dead” rewrites David & Bathsheba as a snuff-liturgy; “Gouge Away” retells Samson & Delilah with voyeuristic relish. - **Eco-parable** – “Monkey Gone to Heaven” folds climate dread into numerology: *“If man is 5… then the devil is 6… and God is 7.”* - **Surrealist cinema** – “Debaser” literally screams *“Un Chien Andalou!”* turning Luis Buñuel’s eyeball-slitting into a mosh-ready chorus. - ** Americana noir** – “Here Comes Your Man” is a hobo-apocalypse disguised as jangle-pop; “Crackity Jones” compresses a psychotic Puerto-Rican roommate into 84 seconds of bilingual panic. - **Humour & absurdity** – “La La Love You” lampoons 50s crooners; “Mr. Grieves” gives the album its title while sounding like a demented children’s rhyme. Kim Deal’s honeyed harmonies are the **emotional safety net**—every time Francis howls about gouged eyes or tidal waves, Deal’s voice reassures you it’s still only a pop song. --- ## 2. **Music – Controlled Dynamite** | **Ingredient** | **What it does on *Doolittle*** | |----------------|---------------------------------| | **Quiet-to-loud** | Not just a gimmick—each whisper makes the subsequent explosion feel like a plane crash. | | **Surf & horror** | Joey Santiago’s guitar is Dick Dale in a slasher flick: twangy, bent, occasionally dissonant, always melodic. | | **Motorik bass** | Kim Deal’s pick-driven lines are hooks in themselves (“Monkey”, “Hey”)—mid-range, round, impossible not to hum. | | **Tight-as-a-trap drums** | David Lovering plays like a metronome with a pulse; his tom work on “Gouge Away” is tribal, his shuffle on “There Goes My Gun” is pure pop. | | **Tempo tricks** | Norton slowed some cuts (“There Goes My Gun”) giving them swing; others (“Tame”) freeze-frame before detonation. | --- ## 3. **Production – Gil Norton’s Architectural Chaos** Steve Albini captured raw *Surfer Rosa*; Norton **polished the blade without dulling it**. - **Two-week demo dissection** – every accent, pause and drop was mapped; spontaneity became choreography. - **Compression & layering** – guitars doubled, vocals stacked, but still razor-clean. (Santiago hated the blanket-covered amps, yet the reverb is subtle enough to keep grit.) - **Cello & violin** on “Monkey Gone to Heaven” – first-ever Pixies session guests, adding apocalyptic grandeur without prog bloat. - **38-minute runtime, 15 songs** – no fat, every second earns its place. --- ## 4. **Themes – Sex, Death, Film Reels & Environmental Doom** - **Violence as liturgy** – biblical bodies torn apart, yet sung with pop glee. - **Ecological dread** – oceans of blood, radioactive monkeys; 1989’s eco-anxiety feels 2025-prescient. - **Cinema inside your headphones** – each track a 2-minute scene: Buñuel, Lynch, Old Testament, Puerto-Rican horror comedy. - **Identity & paranoia** – “ Crackity Jones” = mental-illness voyeurism; “Hey” = masked desire. --- ## 5. **Influence – The Blueprint for 90s (and beyond)** - **Nirvana** – Kurt Cobain admitted *“Smells Like Teen Spirit”* was his attempt to rip the Pixies: *“I was trying to write the ultimate pop song in the Pixies’ style.”* - **Radiohead** – refused to follow them at a 2004 festival, claiming *“it would be like The Beatles supporting us.”* - **PJ Harvey, Strokes, Arcade Fire, Blur, Weezer** – all borrowed the loud/quiet/loud, surf-noise or surreal-biblical lyric kit. - **Modern indie** – any band that puts a catchy chorus inside a feedback squall (Wolf Alice, IDLES, Big Thief) is still tracing *Doolittle*’s floor plan. --- ## 6. **Pros & Cons – The Coldest Look** ### **Pros** ✅ **Front-to-back bangers** – 15 tracks, zero filler; every song could be a single. ✅ **Lyrics that reward repeat reads** – dense with film refs, numerology, dark jokes. ✅ **Break-neck economy** – average track length 2:30; punk urgency married to pop craft. ✅ **Production clarity** – raw energy preserved, yet you can pick out every tambourine hit. ✅ **Vocal chemistry** – Francis’ scream vs. Deal’s lullaby = eternal yin-yang. ✅ **Still sounds future-proof** – drop it in any 2025 playlist and it wipes the floor. ### **Cons** ❌ **Might be *too* perfect** – some fans miss Albini’s scuzz; *Doolittle* is chaos under museum glass. ❌ **Short runtime leaves you hungry** – 38 min is a tease; you’ll wear out the rewind button. ❌ **Homogeneity of key & tempo** – mostly G-D-A, mostly mid-fast; casual listeners may blur verses together. ❌ **Lyrics opaque for literalists** – if you need straight narratives, the surrealism can feel like in-jokes you’re not in on. ❌ **Overshadows the rest of their catalog** – *Bossanova* & *Trompe le Monde* deserve daylight but live in *Doolittle*’s eclipse. --- ## **Verdict** *Doolittle* is a **38-minute postgraduate seminar** on how to make the apocalypse danceable. It’s pop, punk, surf, scripture and cinema cut into 15 perfect diamonds. The cons aren’t flaws so much as **nit-picks in the face of genius**—and the influence quotient is so high that without it the last 35 years of guitar music would sound unimaginably different. **Score: 10/10 – mandatory listening for anyone who’s ever owned ears.**

me encanta

I’m not generally a Pixies fan, but this album is pretty undeniable. The impact it had certainly is. It drops off a little in the back half, but nevertheless it has to stand tall

What can I say I freaking love the Pixies and this album. So many of these songs are bops. I’ve actually never listened to this album as a collective just individual songs so that was a fun experience. This was a great alt-rock breakout album from the Pixies and I would definitely listen to it again in the future!

I never think of this as one of my favorite albums, but then I listen to it, and it’s just song I love after song I love. It’s an amazing album. Pretty much perfect.

Iconic. This was the first record I heard from Pixies. Monkey Gone to Heaven was the first song I had on repeat as a teen by Pixies. I fukin love Pixies

Let's get this out of the way: "Gouge Away" is one of my very favorite songs. Like, shockingly-high-on-my-shortlist favorites. You-wouldn't-believe-how-high-on-my-shortlist-favorites. So high, in fact, that if I had to assemble a desert island disc collection, Doolittle would be in the running for inclusion on the strength of that one song and how insanely into it I am. The moment I first heard Kim Deal cooing in the background of "Gouge Away" was the moment I fell in love with the Pixies. Luckily for my desert island collection, I wouldn't be sacrificing much to include it. This is one of the most self-assured, cohesive blasts of pure music gobbley-gook ever made. The Pixies know who they are, and who they are is masters of blending pop and fuzzed-out guitars. 38 minutes and every one of them is perfect. Not necessarily from the moment I first heard them -- some of those moments are pretty out there -- but as I've lived with this album for decades, all those idiosyncrasies and moments where I don't entirely get why Frank Black thought they would be a good idea have revealed themselves as works of mad genius. If they announced a Mount Rushmore would be carved out of (white) rock icons and the four included bands were The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, The Clash, and Pixies, I'd nod and send in my vote of approval. They're one of those bands, and this is one of those albums, where they did not seem to be reaching for superstardom or growing songs in a lab to please anyone but themselves. It's just the full force of their personality (despite Gil Norton's tinkering). What a pleasure it was to have this on today.

One of my favourite albums of all time

I mean this is a incredible album. This and Surfer Rosa are probably the best that the Pixies put out. I haven't listened to this album in quite a while and I'm so glad this project got me listening to it again. This is an alt-rock classic and so many great albums in the 90's were influenced by this band. This album is a bit heavier than I remember which is great. There are many more styles of music in this album which I totally forgot about. I always think that "Here Comes Your Man" is an Elvis Costello song.

Fully deserved 5. One of the most influential albums of the 80s, without this there would be no 'alternative' music category and no Smell's Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Loads of others influenced by the Pixies in general but this album in particular. So many stand out tracks, if you're not giving this a 5 we need to have words.......

Front loaded but goes toe to toe with the other big hitter grunge records from that time

Album 59/1001 🧚‍♀️ 🧚‍♀️ 🧚‍♀️🧚🏻‍♀️🧚‍♀️

Might be the best album ever made.

Brilliant album....such energy..fun

Banger after banger. There aren't many albums as consistently great as this

It's weird to me that there are people past a certain age that have not heard Doolittle, but some people are over 30 some are even over 40 and have never had sex or read James Joyce so who's to say anything (?) well me... It's a flawless inspirational album blah blah blah... you heard it all before or will, so I have nothing to add but... 1.) Get a hard copy (LP, CD or Tape) play it on a decent sound system (or on a shot shit boombox) it doesn't matter a great deal, really even stream it or play it with a potato. 2.) Lay back close your eyes and listen - do nothing else just listen. Can you do that for 38:38 minutes? This is a pretty girl seating across you. This is Michel Foucault waxing and waning. This is fine art- it demands your full attention. 3.) Get a tattoo on your tit, it should read number 13. Elvis Presley's self-titled debut. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sex Pistols lone album. Surfer Rosa. Nirvana. Kanye West's Graduation. Black Star. Hear these too while you are at it.

Yes to Pixies yesterday, today, and forever.

Yeah this album is a classic for a reason. Fave track: Hey

It’s hard to overstate how hard I connected to this album when I first heard it. The album has serious legs, and keeps on giving in strange and beautiful ways. Proto-grunge perfection. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Top of the top

Silver only bad song Luv dis album

Black Francis dropping 6 7 references in 1989. Don't love every song on its own but sum of its parts or whatever. Tame is hitting HARD this time around. Gosh I love this project

I still remember when I first discovered the Pixies. As a teenage Radiohead and Nirvana fan in the 90s, they had been on my radar for quite some time, but I'd never gotten around to listening to them. Then late one night, I stayed up to watch a Motorhead documentary. Right afterwards they showed "Gouge Away", the Pixies documentary. I was blown away. Especially in comparison to the Motorhead doc, I couldn't believe the calibre of musicians who were talking heads in the doc, gushing about what the band meant to them: Graham Coxon, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Thom Yorke and even a rare appearance from Jonny Greenwood. I went straight out the next day and bought Surfer Rosa. Pixies quickly became one of my all-time favourite bands. In the pre-Spotify days, as a broke teenager, you had to pick and choose your next album carefully. I got through the Pixies discography, but somehow managed to leave Doolittle until last. On a train to Belfast to see Radiohead, a college friend couldn't believe I was a Pixies fan who hadn't listened to Doolittle, so he handed over his Discman with Doolittle inside, and told me to rectify the situation immediately. I listened to the entire album from start to finish. I just couldn't stop listening to it. Pixies became a big part of my life. Playing Debaser on the streets of Galway at 2am with guitars borrowed from buskers. Obsessively trying to deconstruct Joey's guitar sounds. I once had an in-depth conversation with a stripper about the fueds between Francis and Kim. Having arguments with friends at parties about our favourite Frank Black screams in Hey ("If you go" vs "That the mother makes"). Watching "Un Chien Andalou" just because it's referenced in Debaser. Wrecking my neighbours' heads with my attempts to play along with "Dead" (Joey's parts of course). Knowing all the lyrics to "Hey", being the next best thing since knowing all the lyrics to "I've Been Tired". The album is more than a classic, it's monumental. Tame, I Bleed and Dead are the holy trinity of the "loud quiet loud" dynamics that fed Nirvana and Radiohead (and countless others). Debaser taking off towards the end. Joey's guitar at the end of Hey making you feel like your head is bending out of shape, much like the visual effect in the "Here Comes Your Man" music video. Lyrics about mutilation, prostitutes and old bible stories. Kim and Francis' voices going in completely different directions, but somehow working perfectly together. Frank's screams. I still can't listen to "Tame" without thinking of him talking about one of his proudest moments when a 75 year old member of the Sun Ra Arkestra said to him "Boy, you sure can holler!" I've been lucky enough to have seen them live now so many times that I've lost count, and I'll always go to see them whenever they play here. In fact, I'm going to see them again next year on my birthday. Back in my 20s, I used to listen to Pixies on my headphones on my way to a night out, to get my head out of a mental funk. Listening to them today still gives me goosebumps and puts me in a giddy mood. Raw, surreal, energetic, innovative, oddball, dark, witty, fun, and intensely weird in all the right ways.

Until a year ago I couldn’t have told you a single Pixies song. I discovered that they were an influence on some great bands, namely Nirvana. I listened to a random album before seeing them open for Pearl Jam in Sydney. I must admit that I was late in and only saw them play 3 or 4 sings. I just didn’t feel it. Then I listened to this album and it blew my mind wide open, what an album!

Gorgeous, bizarre, wonderful,record from top to bottom. The Pixies’ best!

So good.

Some of the albums in this collection of 1001 must listen are a little iffy, this one is not.

What a fun album.

Loved it!

Lifechanging. One of the best album of the '90s.

9/10

Love this album, great tracks and musicianship. This monkey, debasser, and wave of mutilation all outstanding 👍

Really growing me. First time really paying attention to pixies lyrics. Noise pop?

This album was my introduction to The Pixies and I instantly loved it when it came out. I actually prefer Surfer Rosa, their debut album, probably because it sounds just a little bit more raw, and it's almost literally perfect. But I didn't get around to listening to that album for at least a few years after it was released. Doolittle has a few weak spots, very minor, but it's not perfect. It's just a little over-produced here and there maybe, a hint of what was to come as the band moved to a more commercial sound? I hadn't listened to this album in decades, unlike Surfer Rosa, which I listen to at least once or twice a year. I never realised just how short the tracks are, with few longer than three minutes. Owning this on vinyl, I tended to blur the various songs together in my head when playing it through, seeing it more as a musical experience than a selection of tracks that could be played in a different order. I didn't even know the names of half of the songs! Anyway, great album, obviously a massive influence on 1990s alt-rock, and very much holds up today. Easy five stars.

I liked it a lot

One of the best results of the 80's and I love Kim Deal's artistry on the bass.

Wow are we in our Alex era - one of my favorite rock albums of all time

I mean, it's perfect. The bass (which isn't usually a highlight but Kim Deal >>>>). I do think its odd, because aside from Debaser and Here Comes Your Man, there aren't that many tracks I often want to listen to on their own, but they work collectively for a perfect album. Monkey Gone to Heaven, Gouge Away, I Bleed. Just perfection. Listening Notes: -Debaser: HELL. Yes. I don't really know what half this album *means* but it's to the hilt at all times and it rocks so hard. -La La Love You--Opening riff, so good. The whistling, Iconic. chickenbutt (edit: looked the intro up, apparently it's shake your butt. Oh well). Reasonably sure half this album is also danceable, which is unexpected and kinda awesome given how much else it has going on. -All of these songs are of appropriate length. Nothing overstays its welcome (which is hard with this more out there stuff) -There goes my Gun: Another reminder of what an incredible bassist Kim Deal is. Makes sense that post Kim Deal Pixies never did much interesting -Hey: Another song that just doesn't feel like it should work but it goes so hard. Review: You can gouge away, if you want to (laudatory)

I don't think I had ever really listened to the Pixies before getting this album today. That seems odd given how historically important this album seems to be and the fact that it influenced a bunch of the music that came after it. Having now listened to it, I get it. I understand why this album matters and why it's on the list. There were a couple arresting moments where I stopped in my track to make sure that I was still listening to the right album because of how varied it seemed to be. I'm not sure it's a perfect five-star album and would give it 4.5 if I could. But alas, I cannot. So five stars it is.

One of my all time fave bands, and one of my all time favorite records. It’s a little tough to review because there’s nothing I feel I can critique on this one. For me, this is a perfect record. 6/5

Hugely influential album, often praised as the bands best (but I know that Surfer Rosa is better). “Loud quiet loud” and “voice as an instrument” really play out on this album as does the juxtaposition of gruffy Frank Black to the sweet Kim Deal. Just a phenomenal album that I still get excited to listen to today.

Liked this a lot more than Surfer Rosa

I can hear no reason this shouldn’t be a five.

9/10 The Pixies are a band that, along with Sonic Youth, shaped the development of the alternative rock scene that would emerge through the late 80s and into the 90s. While Sonic Youth leant on the more experimental noise edge in their 80s work, Pixies took a bit of the experimental edge away, added a touch of pop sensibility to their songwriting and bundle a load of insanity into the stylings of Frank Black on the lead vocal. Variously undulating between different levels of sanity, he often sounds like a man screaming his "theories" into the cold wing of a mental institution that he is the sole resident of, and it’s genius. The rest of the band provide a really solid footing and the production of the rhythm section is so strong. Kim Deal’s bass in particular is a massive highlight to the Pixies sound, and David Lovering provides a really solid, stable tempo that grounds a lot of the rest of the ebb and flow of lunacy that drives away on top of it. They prove in various places how competent they are at writing hooks and brilliant melodies, but they only allow fleeting glances into that before they bring you back to a wash of feedback and distorted guitars that crumble away the edge of those poppy moments. You can hear so many different slices of different styles of music that they reference, but it all blends together into this melting pot of experimental, noisy insanity. Those little moments of light among the menacing tone of much of the album are actually one of its strengths, and when that’s combined with the trademark soft/loud Pixies dynamic, it makes for a pulsing, throbbing journey of a band that teeters on the edge of control. The second half of the album does drift a tiny bit, which is the only thing that keeps this from top marks, but other than that it’s a really brilliant album that is so uniquely Pixies in sound that I’ll be back to this time and time again to revel in the mania. Debaser - There’s a great poppy groove to this, and even the backing vocals have a sweet edge to them, but it’s given this psychotic finish by Frank Black. It’s a great song that’s equal parts fun pop-rock and screaming insanity and we’re only just getting started. Tame - Kim Deal’s bass playing is so clean and the drumming is super crisp too. There’s a brooding weirdness about the verses and then, again, things go loony into the chorus. It’s noisy and unhinged. You can definitely hear the influence on Nirvana here in particular. Wave Of Mutilation - This is just a brilliant song. Some of the chord sequences are so satisfying, especially the descending four chords at the end of the lines of the verse. The vocal has less of the lunacy, but it still has a layer of brooding threat to it. And it’s all done in two minutes. I Bleed - This starts off fairly calmly and just builds with more discordant elements thrown in as it goes. I love Kim Deal’s backing vocals in this, they’re somewhere between sweet and unhinged. There’s not too much to the song here, but it’s all about the noise and the choices they make in the production. It feels like it’s falling apart around itself and they’re deliberately pulling things in and out of key, like someone teetering on the edge of madness. Here Comes Your Man - And this is straight down the line surf pop-rock. It’s so hooky and well produced, and it’s just a great song. There’s an edge of that madness to it, but it generally feels like it’s being held under control. There’s light and shade on this album and moments of light like this serve to anchor the darkness in a really effective way. Dead - And, as if to prove my point here’s a descent into darkness. It’s noisy and abrasive without being overly aggressive. The vocal is almost hidden amongst the noise and they throw in these hooky moments now and again, but it’s a controlled, pulsing journey of evolving deranged ideas. Monkey Gone To Heaven - We’re back to another slice of pop-rock gold, but this time with more of the bands trademark noisy insanity infesting it as it goes. The rhythm section is so strong again, they sound so good and their parts are simple, but so precise. The addition of the cello really adds something to this. It’s quite beautiful in places, offset by the increasing insanity of the lead vocal. The screaming of ‘god is seven’ over such a beautiful bed is, frankly, genius. Mr. Grieves - This is frenetic and confusing as they bust their way through 3 or 4 genres in a two minute song. Stylistically it maybe steps a little too far from the rest of the album in places, but that probably just makes it all the more suitable. They can’t help but be a little loony in everything they do. Not my favourite, but it’s a suitably odd part of the album. Crackity Jones - This has got so much pace to it, it just rolls along. Again, love Kim Deal’s bass here, it’s so round and punchy. It’s a frenzied burst of a song and then, bang, it’s done. La La Love You - There’s a great atmosphere to this. The drumming is great in particular, but the production in general is top notch. It’s like the love song of a stalker with the slightly creepy whistling and discordant elements that drift in and out. It could be overly simple if it wasn’t for those noisy, experimental edges that just give it a fantastic edge of weird. No. 13 Baby - This reminds me a little of Meat Puppets. It’s a solid composition that moves through a range of different sounds and stages. It perhaps lacks a little bit on the hook front, but the overall sound is great and the way it drops back out to the quiet sections is excellent. There Goes My Gun - This is another ’collapsing in on itself’ song. There are great hooks and riffs in this, and it’s all so atmospheric and well produced and it just falls apart at the edges and then it’s done. Quality. Hey - The opening guitar riff is so slick and rhythmically satisfying. It’s super groovy, and then it drifts into something that sounds almost like My Bloody Valentine if you took away a few of their reverb pedals. This song ebbs and flows, but it’s got a bit of something about it that I really like and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Great stuff. Silver - Pistols at dawn. There’s so much vibe to this. The production is again fantastic and the dual vocal lines are brilliant. It’s super creepy and threatening. Gouge Away - We get some more of the classic soft/loud dynamic here. It builds and drives in places, but it doesn’t really land on anything that grabs you quite as much as some of the stronger tracks on the album.

Love it. It's unique and timeless, really. Released in the 80s but the style fits even for today. Sounds as great as ever with each listen. I love the Pixies' style in both not trying to sound great, but still delivering a sound that I want to hear. Songs are fairly varied, but also you can tell that they're the Pixies. I can tell that it's not for everyone, but it's great for me. This album definitely opened my eyes and ears to the genre of 80's punk/pre-grunge that I enjoy.

Maybe not quite at the level it used to be for me, but still an absolutely classic album. Fav tracks: Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Mr Grieves, Crackity Jones, Hey. Saved a song: Y RYM: Y (#71)

Best Song: Waves of Mutilation I knew very little about the Pixies when I listened to this and it's great. Definitely will relisten. 5/5.

Instant classic!!!

So effective.

my favourite teacher in highschools favourite album of course i love this

grungy. punky. just my style. 5/5 how do i get my music to sound like this

I remember buying this on cassette when it came out and playing it endlessly for months - it's one of those albums that's just part of my DNA now. Lifelong friendships were formed around a love of this record. Each track is extraordinary. It's peak-Pixies, and a record I don't think they've ever bettered.

Surfer Rosa and Gigantic in particular had a huge impact on me and the music I would listen to from that moment on. Naturally Doolittle was part of that. It is an immense album. When, in my mind at least, "indie" really meant independent with a huge range of styles and delivery. Every song here is just fantastic, from an innovative band at their height.

Pixies' beste album.

Really liked this. Had some great tunes on it, Debaser, Here Comes Your Man. Probably their best work. Simpsons: Yes

The best sort of classic

Such a groundbreaking album

A top 10 album of all time for me, but one that took me a while to fully get on board with. Some of the tracks (Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man) are obvious first hit masterpieces, but there are weirder, trickier songs that took me much longer to appreciate. But those short, sharp shocks are crucial to breaking up the classics, acting as wild little interludes that make sure you are never close to bored. It's possibly the most influential rock album for the next decade, perfecting a sound that wouldn't reach mainstream popularity for 3 or 4 more years. And while the album is incredibly cohesive, needing to be listened in one, there's an incredible variety within, from frenetic punk to bass-driven grooves to catchy commercial radio rock to strange rock n' roll pastiche.

One of the most listenable albums from start to finish.

I never loved this one as much as Surfer Rosa, but on today's listen I wasn't sure why. It's fantastic. Also, I love how Pixies have their own weird little world and these albums are our only glimpse inside. Lots of energy, tuneful tunes, bizarre arrangements and vocals... Great stuff.

The best Pixies album IMHO.

Didalot

I would casually describe this as one of the 20 greatest albums ever and I would not think twice about it.

In my mind, for whatever reason, when I try and mental map what the beginning of the most nebulous genre of all time, "indie rock", was, I think of Pixies. Sure, their forebears and contemporaries are obvious, and their signature sound of harsh guitars with wildly varying dynamics is nowhere close to what anyone would call the average sound of indie rock today. But it's hard for me not to look at everything else at the 80s and think "ok this album's success is where the ever shifting line started". So then what? Give this a 5 because this is the primordial soup where half the music you listen to today comes from? No! I'm giving this a 5 because I love listening to it! My main criticism is sometimes I feel like I should be more put off by the tryhard silliness of lyrics like the reference to Salvador Dali becoming the sole focus of the chorus of "Debaser" and then I listen to the rest of the album and I find myself charmed by the silliness. The contrast is always the point. The silly versus the artsy. The loud versus the quiet. The minimalist versus the maximalist. Ten years ago, a drunk woman at a Pixies show told me "Someday you'll understand this" as the band played "Here Comes Your Man". I think I do now, but not for the reasons she thinks.

Favourite tracks - Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone to Heaven

What are the odds to get this the day after the Frank Black solo album? A perfect album, every single song adds so much to this and it has so much variety without ever feeling tryhard or overstaying its welcome.

where is my mind? pais do rock alternativo, sem pixies não existiria nada!!! agradeçam radiohead, strokes e linkin park, pixies correu para que vocês pudessem andar!!!

I’m behind so I can’t really absorb this the way I want to but through 1 listen it’s clearly very good. Feels like these guys are pretty underrated. Not an alt rock expert but The Strokes seemed to have pulled a lot of this guitar work. My favorite parts are when the lead singer really lets loose claiming to be an unchained dog. Love unchained dog energy from my front men, kinda wish he’d look the part a little more. Hard to picture a fat suburban looking dude in a flannel doing any of this convincingly.

One of the only benefits of being a writer who gets rejected all the time is that everytime you get rejected you get to comfort yourself with the same self-righteous anger you had when you were a teenager that equates to something like “THE WORLD DOESNT UNDERSTAND ME” . Anyway, was feeling this way Friday night after an agent didn’t ‘get’ my new erotic novel, I got in my car and put on debaser and it hit me just perfectly. Felt like a weird teenager having a blast being pissed off and half-crazed screaming ‘SLICING UP EYEBALLS HA HA ho Ho ho’ alongside fat crazy Frank Black. Was just what I needed in the moment. The rest of this album rips too. Here comes your man has always been a particular favorite, (the snare roll is sick) as has this monkeys gone to heaven. This album was so much better than the other pixies on this list, which felt like weird for the sake of being weird. On the contrary, this was weird for the sake of being awesome.

Been listening to this on and off all weekend walking around NY, kind of the perfect soundtrack for the city. If I’ve gone front to back on Doolittle it’s been a long time. Debaser might be one of the coolest opening tracks we’ve gotten. The baseline, the drop into the riff, and then the pedal to the metal vocals. If you cut out the screaming though, it’s a super catchy pop song at heart, and that’s what I love about this album - unlike the other more arty stuff from this era (ahem Joy Division) Pixies are here to write fun songs. It’s the same approach Cobain supposedly espoused - yeah he wrote some rough angsty songs, but he said melody always mattered more than anything. No suprise this was one of his favorite albums. The album kind of alternates between true radio hits like Wave of Mutilation and the heavier stuff like Tame, and the blend is just perfect.

Another review that’s not going to be objective, if you have any interest in alt/indie rock, whatever that actually is, then this 89 record is well essential must hear. 5 stars

A precursor to grunge and 90's alternative rock. It is a classic album everyone should own.

Perfecta excusa para volver a escuchar este album que tanto me gusta, con un buen balance de un rock mas violento con todo el griterio, guitarras sobresaturadas y canciones mas alegres como Here Comes Your Man. Se aprecia que sea un rock ruidoso que a la vez es muy limpio, creo que envejeció de muy buena manera y es el que mas me gustó de todos los que tocaron hasta ahora. Esta es mi segunda listen front to back y la disfrute muchísimo más que la primera. Un clásico indiscutible, sin skips, totalmente coherente y con una intro tan buena que ya te pone en el mood con el temazo que es Debaser. Si tengo que elegir favs: Dead, Hey, Crackity Jones, Wave of Mutilation, Debaser.

Estos 39 minutos de ruido son de lo mejorcito que uno puede escuchar. Destaco basslines muy icónicas (gracias Kim Deal) y con la voz de Black Francis (que la usa de una manera bastante única sin llegar a desentonar con el resto de la canción), pero siendo honesto todo mola un huevo así que me voy a quedar con todo el disco lol. A la playlist: Debaser (de los mejores openers oat), Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Mr. Grieves, Hey

Generally regarded as Pixies' peak, I'm troubled to find much argument with this, although I seem to reach for Bossanova more frequently. Upon listening to this, I noticed for the first time how much Dave Lovering's drums were mixed back on this album compared to its predecessor, Surfer Rosa. On SR, his drums sounded like gunshots, but the production on Doolittle sounds more balanced, more filled in, less brash. It's a difference that I note, not a criticism. So many of these songs are singalong pop songs, and "Here Comes Your Man" couldn't sound more like a pop single. The video of them mocking their own detour towards a radio-friendlier sound is pretty funny. This isn't just pop music, though. There's plenty of college radio/punk still evident. I love it, almost as much as I love Bossanova.

You know, I've listened to this album before and I thought I knew where I was gonna settle on this one (with a 4). But listening now, it's just scratching an itch that I didn't know I had. Of course, theres the songs I loved before like Wave of Mutilation and Gouge Away, but other tracks like Debaser and Tame are hitting for today (and Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone to Heaven and There Goes My Gone). Album full of bangers here. And what's driving it all is Kim Deal's basswork. Simple, but driving and prominent. Along with Black Francis' vocals and shouts, its fantastic. So yeah. Fantastic record of front to back winners. Side note, speaking of Kim Deal, why The Breeders aren't on the list is puzzling to me.

Perfection of Perversion!

FUCK YES!!!!! i FINALLY i get to rate Doolittle!!! (the best Pixies album btw) Debaser - 5/5 Tame - 5/5 Wave of Mutilation - 5/5 I Bleed - 5/5 Here Comes Your Man - 5/5 Dead - 4/5 Monkey Gone to Heaven - 5/5 Mr. Grieves - 5/5 Crackity Jones - 4/5 La La Love You - 5/5 No. 13 Baby - 4/5 There Goes My Gun - 5/5 Hey - 5/5 Silver - 3/5 Gouge Away - 5/5 Average score: 4.7/5 this is Pixies at their prime, followed by Surfer Rosa & Bossanova. some of their later work is worth checking out too tho i'll spare fangirling about this album too much more than i already have, but this is legit one of my all-time fav albums. highly recommend this to anyone who hasn't listened to them

Uno de mis favoritos.

I haven't listened to this album in years. I saw them live!

Just sick as hell start to finish.

Great album through and through

Some of my all time favourites

guud

Still love this album.

It's weird listening to an album as regarded as this for the first time completely so far past when it has come out. It's cheating in that you can already hear how it impacted artists after that; you can hear those who wanted to be Kim Deal, those who had just as much angst in them as comes out in this record. Each song is so unique, and some are accessible (Here Comes Your Man, Debaser) and some are not as much (Dead, Silver). Still knowing what I know now, this is an album I want to keep revisiting to see what reveals itself over repeat listens

I love the Pixies and this album is basically just a greatest hits album that they released all in one go. So good, one of the best complete albums. Just so much variety while still maintaining the same sound.

Fun and freaky, very nostalgic for me

This is #day386 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... as loud as hell, a ringin' bell, or here's to my second Pixies record. Funnily enough, despite the random generation, I'm getting these in order of their release. The first was Surfer Rosa, and now the sophomore. It goes without saying that Doolittle is the cradle of alternative rock and the band's masterpiece, pairing iconic sound with crisp production. My personal highlights are "Here Comes Your Man," "Monkey Gone To Heaven" (don't remember paying attention to those strings before, though!), "La La Love You," and, of course, "Gouge Away." This is a 5 out of 5. Looking forward to #day387.

5 out of 5 One of the best of the 80s. Alternative meets grunge.

Incredible, brought music forward, foundation for the alternative genre ⭐️Debaser, Here Comes Your Man 98/100

One of the best Albums from the 80's. One of my favorite albums. Debaser, Tame, Wave of Mutilation, Hey and Gouge Away (also perennial favorite There Goes Your Man)

The goat de los pixies

I really love this album! The peak of punk music

While note quite as elite as Surfer Rosa, Doolittle still has a ton of amazing moments. Love this band and how they can take simple sounds and make them sound profound. 4.5/5

This is a record that I am super familiar with. I anticipate giving 5 stars. I remember the store where I first found this album. I remember where I was driving when everything clicked. The last time I listened to it I was surprised at how many songs I loved. Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, I Bleed, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone to Heaven, La La Love You, There Goes My Gun, Gouge Away, Hey ... would all be the best song on any number of great albums by other bands. Clean guitars and distorted guitars. Ugly voices and and pretty voices. Loud and Quiet. This is a 5 star album even though I had less patience for non 5 star songs on here during this listen.

vicariously nostalgic for Boston in the 80s, passed from the alt adults of my childhood 🤘🐵🤘

This may be one of the best albums ever made. It had such an impact on me that I can still picture the exact scene from when I first heard it back in 1989, sitting on a bed in Mark's dingy student digs at university. There were four or five of use there and we all just shut up and listened. I don't think any of us had heard anything like it before.

What a ridiculously good album. Starts strong with Debaser. Then goes into Wave of Mutilation and I Bleed before banging out Here Comes Your Man. Plus it then has the timeless Monkey Gone to Heaven. There's other stuff I enjoyed here too. Mr Grieves, Dead etc. I don't think there's a weak song in the whole album. I had heard Pixies before but I never listened to this album in full. It might be one of my new favourites. An absolute alt rock classic.

Such a great album. I love the unhinged energy of the singing. Every song on this album is good, and it’s the first time I’ve listened to it all the way though.

100% essential. Obviously it's hugely influential towards all of modern rock, but it also just rocks in and of itself.

Figured it was only a matter of time before this one showed up. This one has gotten the majority play from me out of Pixies discography. Don't have much specific to say other than I love the overall tone and cohesion of this album. In my mind it maps to a sort of "beach punk" or something similar that scratches a similar itch to Modest Mouse. And for me this is the kind of album where as soon as I hear the opening track I have to listen to the whole thing. I love this one front to back with special attention given to Debaser and Here Comes Your Man for their wonderfully beach-adjacent vibes; Monkey Gone to Heaven for its thick slab of bass; Mr. Grieves for its wonderful tempo play; There Goes My Gun for all that it is; and same can be said for Hey. 5 all day for me.

I love this! This is my favorite Pixies album. It is perfect from start to finish.

This album is five stars, and the devil is six, and GOD IS SEVEN!!!!

Classic for a reason

The highs (Debaser, Monkey Goes to Heaven, Hey, Goige Away…) are incredibly high and it was insanely ahead of its time and influential. A few duds sprinkled in (Crackity Jones, Mr Grieves, There Goes My Gun) 4.5/5 (will round up for official rating)

My favorite Pixies album changes regularly between this and Surfer Rosa, but lately it has been Doolittle. The first Pixies album I heard, my friend gave me his tape because he hated it, thinking it would sound like Nirvana after Kurt Cobain recommended them in some magazine. His loss, this album is great.

i really love this album. it's a lot of the dna of modern indie music and you can really tell. there's some really great stuff on here. it's a little bit all over the place. there's some really noisy stuff, there's some kind of poppy stuff, but really most of it is great. it's a vibe album, for sure. i dunno, listening to it makes me feel so cool. it's a cool album. the coolest.

Got this on spring break vacation in 8th grade and I became obsessed. There are songs I don’t want to listen to anymore but I still love it and give it five stars.

This album kicks ass, peak alt rock. Has a lot going on without being too all over the place. They master the quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic. So many different influences in different tracks but still a cohesive record. There's surfer punk ("Debaser"), pop ("Here Comes Your Man") almost Modest Mouse sounding 2000's alt rock ("I Bleed"), rowdy grunge rock ("Tame" and "Gouge Away") slide guitar country/folk("Silver" and "Mr. Grieves") Favorite is leadoff "Debaser".

Brilliant

4.5/5

Strange but melodic. Abrasive but gentle at times. Loud and quiet.

a classic!!!

Love this album.

Really didn't know what to expect with this one, some great songs some alright ones

Soo good and so cool. Great dynamism of the vocals and epic guitar in all the songs, even that unexpected sliding guitar draws you in.

I had a vague familiarity of the Pixies and knew how influential they were to other artists I like, but didn’t think I would love this album as much as I did. Ended up listening three times through in a row. Surprisingly catchy tunes for this genre.

This album was great from start to finish.

The most important rock album of the last 40 years. Gave Nirvana the blueprint to basically change the sound of music as we'd know it. 10/10

One of the most influential indie bands at their best. Love this record!

Tough to say anything new, just fantastic. I love all of the Pixies first run of albums but think this has to be top. It has its own unique feel as do the rest but I prefer this one slightly more. I don’t know if it’s the rockabilly influences but it’s great every time I put it on. There’s only like one song that’s not my thing to keep it from a perfect rating but even it’s pretty good Rating: 4.9

All of the instrumentalists work very well together to create a brilliantly loud yet poppy, dark but energetic masterpiece. The rhythm section drives the songs and controls the speed-up, slow-down dynamic of the album. Vocals are excellent and unique. Kim Deal’s bass lines on the back half of the album, No. 13 Baby in particular, are exquisite.

This was already one of my favourite albums. I love the manic energy and how dynamic the tracks are. Apart from Silver, every song on here is fantastic.

God i love this record. This is pretty much as flawless as an album can be

What an awesome album. This was my fist time with Doolittle, and as its a pretty short album I listened to it over and over again yesterday afternoon and all this morning. Absolutley loved: Debaser Monkey gone to heaven Hey Gouge away This album is now firmly in my 'High rotation' playlist! Came back to give this album a 5. Mostly due to Monkey gone to heaven

Peak Pixies! My favourite of their albums, the perfect mix of good tunes, fun times and chaos! Just my kind of thing. Love Kim Deal on the bass. Soft / quiet + loud / hard perfection I'd give this more stars if I could.

This ablum blem me away when I was 25. It still does the same at 59.

Meu álbum favorito dos Pixies. Muitos hits e os deep cuts são fascinantes também. Adoro o minimalismo desse disco, ele engloba bem o que foi o Alt Rock dos anos 90, com os versos quietos e os refrões noiosos. Clássico, obrigatório no repertório de todo diletante 5/5

Definitely belongs on this list, had a huge impact on my life. I don't listen to all of it all of the way through anymore but the tracks I still love: Tame, I Bleed, Gouge Away.

too many memories to make this objective, and I still hate Lala Love You and Here Comes Your Man. But in those perfect moments, it just slaps

Hits as hard now as ever—I did not predict this would last. And I’m sooooooo glad it remains vital.

DEBASERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR yeah ok FINALLY something that is just excellent. i hadn't heard debaser in years and years and when it came on i almost started crying but i think that's just because my period is due. i listened to this album twice today. i actually have this weird feeling that i'd never heard this album in full before, but i also feel like that can't be right and surely i did at some point??? i don't know.

Thumbs yp

BANGER AFTER BANGER

Love this album

god i love the pixies

Tremendous. Most of my favourite pixies tracks are here. Great dynamics, great instrumentation, great singing. Yes

Obviously great.

So much energy!

Self righteous cringey alt goodness

One of my favorite albums ever.

WANNA GROW UP TO BE UP TO BE BE A DEBASER🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Pure perfection. I still remember hearing it for the first time and being blown away. The simple and catchy hooks, the dumb/profound lyrics infused with biblical references, and of course the interplay of Charles and Kim’s voices.

This is them at their best. There is a reason so many artists are influenced by this album. So many great tracks in a defining moment for 90s music

Great album start to finish, no bad songs. Instrumentals, vocals, energy level, variety of sounds/rhythms... All time classic.

epic

There's a reason this band was such an inspiration to the 90's alternative sound... And by osmosis has helped shape my musical preference.

This was actually my first Pixies album, which means I'm not necessarily in the "Surfer Rosa then everything else" category. I actually loved this album and used it as a gateway to all their other stuff. I'd say it got fairly equal play with "Surfer Rosa" and "Bossa Nova" in my rotation. "Wave of Mutilation" is an all-time favorite track.

I had heard 6 songs beforehand(Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Hey, Here Comes Your Man, Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven) the rest is up to that level, this is a band firing all cylinders. I can play all of the previously named tracks on guitar, but the riff of Hey is a tricky one. https://youtu.be/A7VhNjZXALU Bowie talks Pixies

that's my favorite pixies album, baby. still holds up.

I liked it then, I liked it now.

9/10 I AM UN CHIEN ANDALUSIA

At times frightening, funny, intense, and chilled. You can hear its influence in so many later works. Really excellent.

perfection

Have listened to this many times, twice this year. First time this year I put down Debaser as my favorite song, second time I put down Gouge Away (Gouge Away is what got me into the Pixies originally, also, so that makes sense)

Weird and wonderful and the perfect length. One of my all time faves and a contender for my pick for top album on here. Listening to it makes me happy. Not sure what that says about me

Ugh this one is so good. Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone to Heaven, and Hey are my favs but the whole album is fantastic

This album is awesome!!

I have never listened to much of Pixies in the past, but listening to Doolittle start to finish makes me understand the fandom... this is a masterpiece in Alt Rock.

Wonderful late 80s garage-y goodness.

Great vibe, not every song is great, but there record as a whole is amazing... Easy 5...

Chaotic, undisciplined, alternative

One of the few albums where the next track is so unpredictable but still fits so perfectly. So many imitators who seem to have got hung up on the quiet-loud music and shouty vocals, only to create bland, samey grunge records, forgetting what made these guys so special. There's just so much variation in this record for what is a standard guitar band set up. Intricate, layered guitars, with melodies and counter melodies, backed by danceable, powerful bass lines, with distortion used to artistic effect rather than covering mediore abilities. Those lyrics are just insanely descriptive and utterly original too. They may have little meaning around day-to-day existence, but at least they're fascinating to listen to. Deal's backing vocals add so much as well. Both eerie and comforting. Proper innovators with proper talent and imagination, perfectly showcased in this album. In my personal top 10. And I'll never not dance to Debaser. Needs to be listened to at 11.

Just great

The soundtrack for so much of my late teens and early twenties - listened to this album almost every day while vacuuming the dining room of the camp where I worked. Iconic for me, and led me to a bunch of great music tracing back their influences.

I have been a huge fan of the Pixies since the nineties. I love this album by them!!

Its doolittle.

Oooooh yeah. First, this album gets five stars on notability and influence alone. Creating the nineties alternative rock aesthetic. Now let’s talk about the music. The Pixies quiet loud quiet is in full effect here and it’s great. The quiet is anxious and ominous the loud is unhinged and energetic. It’s also all so much fun. Cool vibes throughout and you just feel like you’re a part of it. Production is super sparse allowing you to hear everything including the silence. This album retains a lot of rawness of Surfer Rosa, but it tames it a bit to make the songs a bit sweeter. Also Black Francis’s vocals are not half bad. Anyway listening back to this album is a trip. The songs are just so great, the dynamics are awesome, it’s all great. Five stars.

Still so good.

Also in my personal top ten, along with Surfer Rosa. A perfect album, and certainly one of the most influential indie bands. I could gush about it all day. Top tracks: No. 13 Baby and Gouge Away

I’m a Pixies guy

Just love this album. Always have

banger

Truly an awesome, pioneering, belter of an album. I have listened many times now but struggle to write anything particularly erudite. I just really like it and think it’s excellent. When listening for review purposes I likened it to miners opening up a new shaft. There are untold wonders lurking within if you look closely enough, some experimental aspects and sometimes you have to come up for air before diving back in again. Not all seams are perfect, and maybe others will come back and make it their own to greater heights, but those first are the trailblazers.

I've listened to this album hella. The guitars and vocals kept it playing for such a long time. There's something so unique about their sound that I can't quite find from other artists. It's grungy in the best possible way while still being catchy.

Really good songwriting and playing on this but the vocals weren’t the best on most tracks. Still really good. 4 stars Edit from February 2026: having to edit the reviews for both this and surfer Rosa as I have become obsessed with both so feel they are now worthy of 5s

J - 5/5 Best Track - "Here Comes Your Man" F - DNL

Great album.

Growing up in Ohio, one of the rare joys was the occasional sighting of a Deal sister. A friend of mine has a story involving them dancing on a pool table, but me, I only caught them as they stopped in local Dayton or Cincinnati bars to catch a fledgling act or two. Kim and Kelley were both super nice, super down to Earth. Listening to the Pixies, I sometimes get frustrated at Black Francis for being such a jerk to Kim. On Surfer Rosa (the better album, in my opinion) BF even goes as far as to tell Kim she should die. Whether that’s innocent banter or not, you can tell by BF’s general energy and lyrical content that he was probably not the most stable individual to join up in a band with. Still, you can’t doubt, there is an energy to Doolittle (and Surfer Rosa). Whenever I listen to either album, I find myself wishing that all music was this cool. The early Pixies have always been a go-to for me, and they always will be. I mean, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Here Comes Your Man, Hey- there are so many underrated classics here. You hear Pixies songs everywhere, they percolate within you, then you listen to a full album and it’s like ‘hey, I know all these songs.’ If you released a greatest hits album, it would just be Doolittle and Surfer Rosa stacked together.

10/10 no duds on this record. A straight up classic.

meesterwerk van eerste tot laatste noot

klassiekers, moeten zeker in collectie

Cerramos una semana particularísima en mi vida con éste discazo de Pixies. Lo escuché hasta el cansancio y me recuerda inevitablemente a mi primer novia, quien me los hizo conocer, además de que viajamos a verlos en 2014 a Buenos Aires, con Paz Lenchantin en el bajo. Las personas que nos recomiendan cosas que nos fascinan ocupan (o deberían ocupar) un lugar privilegiado en nuestras vidas, sin por ello volvernos nostálgicos de un pasado sino de lo que fue transformador y lo será para con nosotros el arte. Hasta el lunes, de lo que será otra semana corta.

All time favorite, love to see in this list. Best tracks: - Debaser - Tame - Wave Of Mutilation - Here Comes Your Man - Monkey Gone To Heaven - Hey - Gouge Away

Actually a banging album.

Classic, ahead of its time. Lots of great tracks, maybe isn’t the most coherent as an album, but a very fun listen.

Tame is the blueprint for "in uetro" . I have never listened to a pixies album, mind blown 🤯

It's both somehow incredibly deranged and a brilliant pop album at the same time. 5 Stars.

Essential building block of the modern-day Patrick, down to the fact that the first music video I ever made was to “Debaser.”

Always loved it. Still do. Top 100 all time.

Overall: 10/10 As I was relistening to this for the 5000th time this morning, I was thinking about how much this album has meant to me over the last 10+ years since I first heard it. It's quite possible that this album has shaped my taste in music more than any other and for that reason I'm pretty confident in saying it's a top 3 album of all time for me. It's rock music, but it's so original and creative and brings in influences from so many different sources. It sounds like it's trying it's best to be a 50's rock n roll album made by an inmate serving 25 to life. Black Francis is one of the most unhinged vocalists to ever exist. Kim Deal may not be the most technical bassist out there but her basslines are so hypnotic and engaging, and I love her backing vocals so much (big fan of The Breeders as well). The guitar work from Joey Santiago came from the dark recesses of his brain, it's really the only way to explain it. David Lovering....OH MY GOD he's the secret weapon, not too flashy but you find yourself air drumming some of his parts, not realizing how impactful it was to a song. I genuinely think every single musician on the planet should listen to this album. It reshaped my brain and made me able to enjoy a wider variety of music than anything I'd heard before it. Also, sometimes I find a song that makes me cry because of how good it is, and I'm pretty sure Hey was the first song that made me cry for that reason. Fav Song: Hey Least Fav Song: Silver

What's to say? It's Pixies. This album simply condenses my music taste.

It was good to have an opportunity to give this album a critical listen because it's already a favourite. It's a collection of some incredibly well formed tracks where Pixies showcase their ability to produce perfect-for-radio nuggets. "Hey" is an absolute gem and my highlight of the album. I love the Pixies' sound and the recording and production are both excellent, capturing all the musical details but still sounding raw. My only criticism is that the album does feel like more of a collection of individual tracks than a fully coherent album. Sometimes the next track feels like an abrupt change of pace. I missed Pixies in my youth and now really wish I had discovered this album in the nineties instead of the twenties.

These songs hold up

Let's never forgot who the Pixies were when they put out Doolittle compared to the Pixies milking it today.

An album that influenced so much, Pixies sound is perfect on this, loud-quiet-loud, so many great tracks and really no filler, the intensity and noise of the guitars and vocals are balanced perfectly with Kim's base and backing vocals, her licks are so clean and simple but genius. It's loud and trashy but also soft and melodic.

HEY, BEEN TRYING TO MEET YOU. In my top albums of all time. Absolute masterpiece.

Some albums are so formative and disruptive to your regular listening that they set you on a new path. You remember when and where you heard it for the first time, and how it made you feel. That was Doolittle for me. I didn't know music could sound like this and from the first bass line of Debaser my mind was opened.

Fantastic album. Big fan of "Hey".

Massively influential for alt rock and massively influential on my music taste ever since I heard the song Debaser on skate 3. I love how unhinged it is, it’s impossible to predict how the next song will sound.

If you want an album where every single instrument pulls it's weight, and then some, then this right here is the answer. For an album that is as raw and unhinged as this, with almost punk leaning tendencies in some moments, it sure is beautiful too.

Brilliant.

Always and forever

Grungey post-punk with some 80s new wave and goth (a la The Cure) sensitivities. Also lots of dissonance and shouty vocals. Mr Grieves even seems to pre-empt later indie a la Libertines/Franz Ferdinand Gets better throughout! Crackity Jones has a cool frantic energy! Best track - Here Comes Your Man/ Mr Grieves/Crackity Jones/Gouge Away

OK, on arrête les conneries cinq minutes, car on ne parle pas d'un disque, ici. On parle d'une cicatrice, d'un putain d'accident de la route en 15 chapitres qui t'a laissé défiguré, heureux et changé à jamais. Un disque qui te rappelle pourquoi, un jour, tu as décidé que la musique était plus importante que, disons, manger à ta faim ou avoir une vie sociale équilibrée. "Doolittle", c'est pas de la musique, c'est une lobotomie au tournevis rouillé qui te fait voir Dieu et le Diable en train de jouer au strip-poker. En 1989, j'avais 19 piges, et je croyais avoir déjà tout entendu, et puis cette galette a atterri avec sa pochette representant un singe et son auréole... La première écoute fut un choc, pas un choc agréable, non. Un vrai trauma, le genre de truc qui te force à réévaluer l'intégralité de tes certitudes sur ce que peut être une chanson de trois minutes. Parce que leur fameux "loud-quiet-loud", tout le monde en parle aujourd'hui comme si c'était une formule de cours de solfège. Mas laissez-moi vous dire ce que c'est vraiment, c'est un rendez-vous galant avec une schizophrène magnifique. Elle te caresse la joue en te susurrant des insanités adorables, la basse de Kim Deal te masse les tempes, tu te sens bien, en sécurité... ET SOUDAIN, SANS PRÉVENIR, ELLE TE PLANTE UNE FOURCHETTE DANS LA CUISSE EN HURLANT DES VERSETS DE LA BIBLE ! C'est ça, "Doolittle", une agression consentie, une prise d'otage dont tu ne veux jamais être libéré. La guitare de Joey Santiago ne plaque pas des accords, elle lacère le silence avec un tesson de bouteille. Et la voix de Black Francis... Mon Dieu, cette voix. Ce type ne chante pas, il exorcise, il vomit des histoires de mutilation oculaire, de putes de Babylone et de calamars qui flottent dans l'océan, comme si sa vie en dépendait. Les textes, parlons-en. C'est pas un album, c'est le journal intime d'un prophète sous acide enfermé dans un asile de l'Ancien Testament. Tu crois écouter une chanson pop et tu te retrouves au milieu d'un bain de sang biblique. Tu penses que "Here Comes Your Man" est une petite bluette surf-rock sympa ? Écoute mieux, ça parle de clochards qui meurent dans un tremblement de terre. Chaque morceau est un petit théâtre de la cruauté, un univers miniature où le grotesque, l'horreur et une beauté totalement tordue baisent à s'en arracher la peau sur le capot d'une caisse rouillée. Et le pire dans tout ça ? C'est l'escroquerie cosmique qui a suivi. Ce disque a été la putain de pierre de Rosette pour toute la décennie 90. Pendant que ces quatre génies cabossés bouffaient de la merde sur la route, un certain Kurt Cobain, aussi blond et triste qu'un ange déchu, était dans sa chambre en train de décortiquer "Doolittle" comme un manuel d'instructions. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ? C'est "Tame" joué un peu moins vite avec un budget de production hollywoodien. C'est une photocopie, une brillante photocopie, certes, mais une photocopie quand même. Les Pixies ont inventé la recette, et Nirvana a ouvert une chaîne de fast-food qui a fait des milliards avec. Voilà la vérité car tous ces groupes qui ont suivi, de Radiohead à Weezer, ils ont tous pillé le même tombeau, celui que Black Francis et sa bande de tarés avaient eu le génie de construire. Alors aujourd'hui, 35 ans plus tard, quand on me demande pourquoi ce disque est si important, je lui dis de la fermer et d'écouter. D'écouter cette folie pure, cette liberté totale, cette énergie qui te décolle la pulpe du fond du cerveau. Ce n'est pas un album qui vieillit, c'est un artefact radioactif qui ne perd pas en puissance car il contamine chaque nouvelle génération. Mettre 5/5 à Doolittle, c'est comme filer une médaille en chocolat à un type qui vient d'arrêter une météorite avec les dents. C'est insultant de banalité car ce disque est hors-concours, hors catégorie, hors de toute logique. Et je n'ai toujours qu'une seule certitude : si le singe n'est pas monté au paradis, alors le paradis peut aller se faire enculer.

Pure serotonin.