Pixies – The Night The Zombies Came – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Since the Pixies reformed 20 years ago and began releasing albums 10 years ago, we’ve all had to recalibrate our opinion of the reformed band.  They are a different entity now, no longer breaking new ground in ‘alternative rock’.  What they are now is a very decent, conventional rock band.  Once you accept that, their recent albums make for very enjoyable listens.

As does this one, their fifth album since reforming, which means 21st-century Pixies have released as much music as the original lineup.  It’s as laidback a Pixies album as you could possibly imagine, full of slowly building tracks such as Primrose, Hypnotised and Motoroller with some excellent guitar work.  That’s not to say the songs all sound the same, You’re So Impatient is a taut, insistent rocker while Jane (The Night The Zombies Came) sounds exactly like those 1960s Phil Spector productions.  Chicken lurches along with some weird lyrics about decapitation but there’s very little here that will disturb the neighbours.

Johnny Good Man riffs very close to Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl but it works, while Oyster Beds kicks out the jams, Stooges style.  In a similar vein, the good-natured stomp Ernest Evans might elicit pogoing if you’re so inclined.  There are lovely touches throughout, the way the guitars suddenly crank up in I Hear You Mary, and the surf guitar solo in King of the Prairie to name two.  One of the strongest tracks is the final track, The Vegas Suite, a multipart song that starts as a gentle crawl before they build things up with some great guitar work in the coda.

While the album doesn’t have any real standout tracks, it improves with each listen and there’s every chance a handful of these songs may become favourites.

Oyster Beds