It’s Pixies: soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD. Amelodic shrieking. Sneering lyrics. The band is always at their best when they’re doing deranged 60s pop. See: Nirvana, Weezer. It’s hard to listen now without putting the whole of rock music from grunge to now in context as post-Pixies. The screaming punk songs sound dated, not able to scare my parents any more. Record sounds AWESOME. I can hear every time a pick touches a guitar string and every high hat splash and bass drum kick burrow into my head. It’s no Doolittle, but what is? Boobies.

Ballads are straight 70s cheese, hits are good but hard to listen with having heard them 10000 times. Still, undeniable talent and quality music. Would be better with Screaming Man Chorus.

It’s Pixies: soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD. Amelodic shrieking. Sneering lyrics. The band is always at their best when they’re doing deranged 60s pop. See: Nirvana, Weezer. It’s hard to listen now without putting the whole of rock music from grunge to now in context as post-Pixies. The screaming punk songs sound dated, not able to scare my parents any more. Record sounds AWESOME. I can hear every time a pick touches a guitar string and every high hat splash and bass drum kick burrow into my head. It’s no Doolittle, but what is? Boobies.

It’s hard to listen objectively when I’m sobbing uncontrollably and getting lost in Colin’s voice. One of my all-time favorite records. The only real questions worth pursuing: is Butcher’s Tale a good song? (A good song no, but it’s surprisingly effective. Puts me in some sort of evil trance). Should TotS have been on this record? (I vote no. Great song, but it stands out both because of overplay and very different sound from the rest of the album). It’s funny that The Beatles get all the credit for doing the R&B->bubblegum->psychedelic rock pioneers thing, but the Zombies did it, in fewer recordings, skipping the bubblegum stage, and were often better. The Beach Boys skipped R&B and made one classic album. Give me Odessey over Pet Sounds or Sgt Pepper’s any day of the week. This is a 5-star album and anyone who says otherwise is a BUFFOON. I’m looking at you, phlops.