The Pixies Surfer Rosa ignores the overproduced synthy sounds of the 80s in favor of Steve Albini's raw, cold, unpolished production and it makes an abrasive statement on the cultural shift moving into the 90s. With songs covered by the likes of David Bowie, included in seminal 90s film Fight Club and its great influence on grunge music, its manic pessimism is still felt to this day. Like Sonic Youth the female and male vocals sold this album to me instantly when I first heard it, Frank Black and Kim deals vocals just coalesce into something far greater than the sum of their parts. Just take the backing vocals on Where Is My Mind, which are so harrowingly beautiful and mystifying that I can't help but be completely absorbed by it. Kim Deal gets her own track on the album, Gigantic, led by her powerful yet soothing vocals, definitely in the conversation of best Pixies songs. The way Kim sings the first verse is completely entrancing evoking a sense of teenage love, carefree and youthful as though she's completely entranced by this 'big big love'. Another one of my favourite tracks is Something Against You which starts sounding like an episode of spongebob with its opening guitar riff until exploding into sea of razor-blade guitars which swamp the vocals which sound like they're shouted through a broken megaphone. Also the lyrical content on this album is so raw and unfiltered, clearly making way for the grunge scene in the 90s. Lines like "I'm the horny loser... I'm the ugly lover" or "He bought me a soda and tried to molest me in the parking lot" or "The day before that I was wed, she went upstairs and shot her head." Just scream nirvana-isms, that they would employ on songs like 'rape me' and 'Polly'. The entire first half of the album up until cactus is fucking fantastic which is a bummer when you look at the last five songs which show the band slowly running out of steam. Theres lots of gringo Spanish and a song about a superhero named Tony on the back end, which are funny but certainly tonal whiplash from the strong first half. It does pick up slightly with the last two songs and some spoken word sections which I think add a lot to the album. 9/10