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Amazing album which was exceptionally good value. Arrived very quickly. Would recommend to others
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
With 'Doolittle', it's difficult to know where to start - there are just so many things to recommend this album. It's the record that defines American alternative rock in the late 1980s: slightly weird, slightly surreal, in turns belligerent and beautiful. 'Doolittle' kicks off with the absolutely awesome 'Debaser', a bona fide classic so good that Kurt Cobain wrote 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by messing up the opening riff! With Joey Santiago's trademark guitar squeals interplaying with Frank Black's vein-popping vocals and Kim Deal's ethereal backing voice, the album is worth owning for 'Debaser' alone. Thankfully, the quality does not slip throughout the rest of the album. 'Tame' is an angry beast of a track, while 'Wave of Mutilation' is just poppy enough to be single material yet retains the edginess of the opening two tracks. 'I Bleed' sees Black and Deal duet brilliantly, although it's as far away from Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams as you can get. 'Here Comes Your Man' is a beautiful love song, with pop melodies at a high tempo without ever becoming sickly-sweet, while 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' is one of the best tracks of the '80s, showing off the mastery of dynamics also in evidence on the fantastic 'Hey'. The lyrically inventive 'Mr Grieves' and 'No. 13 Baby' are two of the greatest songs ever to be prefixed with the monicker 'knockabout', while 'Crackity Jones' is a piece of furious punk up there with 'Isla De Encanta' from 'Surfer Rosa'. To round it all off, 'Gouge Away' is one of the all-time great closing tracks, those quiet-loud dynamics coming in useful again with Black oscillating between whispers and screams over one of the Pixies' best riffs. Suffice to say, 'Doolittle' is even better than the Pixies' other three albums, 'Surfer Rosa', 'Bossanova' and 'Trompe Le Monde'. This is an absolutely fantastic record.Read full review
It is nice these days to see Pixies getting the wider recognition for the impact they had in bringing underground rock to the mainstream, but the most important point about the band is that their music still sounds absolutely brilliant. ‘Doolittle’ is Pixies best regarded and most famous album and rightly so. Fifteen tracks of thrilling surf-pop-punk fly by in just under 40 minutes, delivered in the band’s unique style. Black Francis’s vocals range from yelps, gibbers, cackles, croons and downright screams as he delivers his gleefully manic schlock-horror lyrics; Joey Santiago’s dazzling lead guitar whines, snarls and crackles with energy; Kim Deal’s tight bass is high in the mix and her laconic backing vocals also provide the perfect foil to Francis’s mentalism and David Lovering’s ferociously tight drumming drives everything on at an incredible pace. It is not an exaggeration to say that all the tracks are great, but personal highlights are the howling blast of ‘Tame’ which steps into the glorious ‘Wave of Mutilation’ in a heartbeat; also “Here Comes Your Man’s’ twangy pop; the demented eco-fable ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’ and the stunning opening and closing tracks ‘Debaser and ‘Gouge Away’. The famous quiet/loud dynamic that Nirvana cheerfully confessed to trying to replicate with ‘Teen Spirit’ pervades the whole record and gives it its power and energy, but ultimately a pop heart (albeit a mental one) beats strong in the wonderful ‘Doolittle’, surly one of the best rock albums of the last 20 years.Read full review
‘Slicing up eyeballs ha ha ha ha slicing up eyeballs…….’ My 11 year old son rolls his eyes, “dad you can’t sing and what you’re singing is horrible”. and this while he draws another gruesome war picture…... This particular nugget is the first song from the Pixies Debaser album which many fans argue is their best. I’ve had this album for many years on vinyl but given my occasional forays into vinyl get less and less a cheap CD purchase from e-bay was just what the music doctor ordered. It has to be said that this album has some of the best songs the Pixies ever wrote and the opener has to be one of those. it’s a corker! I remember a friend telling me that the next track Fame was one of her favourites. I loathe it just pointless screaming but each to their own. ‘Wave of Mutilation‘, ‘I bleed’ and ‘Here comes your man’ bring us bang on beam. ‘Dead’ is not a favourite but the next three tracks keep ‘em coming. ‘Monkey gone to heaven’ was a bit of a break through track for the band whilst ‘Mr Grieves’ is a strange sort of mutant reggae feel to it. I like ‘Crackity Jones’ more now than I did then but the real revelation is ’No 13 baby’. Years not listening to this gem - best make up for that by listening to it half a dozen times on the trot. The next two tracks are OK but the final offering ’Gouge Away’ finishes the album on another high menacing note. Despite not loving all the tracks on the album it works as an album. And in my view if you want to put it on immediately after it finishes it must be ticking the right boxes somewhere.Read full review
Love this album, stands up to more recent stuff very well. Definitely one you need to fill that hole in your back catalogue!
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