{"id":40698,"date":"2008-01-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/doolittle\/"},"modified":"2008-01-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-16T00:00:00","slug":"doolittle","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/doolittle\/","title":{"rendered":"Doolittle"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long time coming, but I\u2019ve finally reached a decision when it comes to the ongoing debate over the groundbreaking alt-rockers: Surfer Rosa<\/i> or Doolittle<\/i>? Sure, Surfer Rosa<\/i> has the one-two punch of \u201cGigantic\u201d and the dreamy distortion of \u201cWhere Is My Mind?,\u201d but on the whole, Doolittle<\/i> is one of those albums that just flows from start to finish, the barely 40-minute runtime skipping by in a flash of stabbing guitars and unbridled, powerful energy.<\/o:p><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Pixies (featuring the formidable double team vocals of Frank Black and bassist Kim Deal, as well as Joey Santiago and David Lovering on guitars and drums, respectively) were brilliantly adept at dissolving the boundaries between abrasive punk and warm pop hooks, creating their own genre-bending blend that would pave the way for the impending grunge revolution. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Doolittle<\/i>, the band\u2019s follow-up to its 1988 debut Surfer Rosa<\/i>, launches straight out with \u201cDebaser,\u201d a raucous ode to surrealism whose lyrics name-check the infamous eyeball-slicing of Luis Bu\u00f1uel and Salvador Dal\u00ed\u2019s film Un chien andalou<\/i>. <\/i>Black\u2019s frenetic shriek is backdropped by slashing guitars, pounding drums and Deal\u2019s hypnotic, almost ethereal backing vocals, all coming together to create a propulsive, bizarrely unique opener. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cDebaser\u2019s\u201d frenetic beat is followed by the eerie, uncontained \u201cTame,\u201d which veers back and forth between tensely whispered portions and an aggressive, screeching chorus before suddenly cutting off after just two minutes. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shifting from eyeballs and \u201cTame\u201d\u2019s Cinderella-hipped women, \u201cWave Of Mutilation\u201d and \u201cMonkey Gone To Heaven\u201d are meditations on the mythology of the marine, described by Black as \u201ca big organic toilet.\u201d In \u201cWave,\u201d failed Japanese businessmen launch themselves into the ocean backed by dynamic instrumentation and an almost jaunty chorus. Meanwhile, \u201cMonkey\u201d is all distorted riffs and deranged vocalization, featuring this time \u201can underwater guy who controlled the sea\/got killed by ten million pounds of sludge.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0A further study in absolute insanity, \u201cCrackity Jones\u201d introduces a former roommate of Black\u2019s: \u201cPlease forgive me, Jose Jones \/ You need these walls for your own \/ I\u2019m moving out of this hopedaje \/ I\u2019m afraid you\u2019ll cut me, boy,\u201d he screeches in this demented riffing on Latin music, an undeniably catchy one-minute explosion of energy.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

All the album\u2019s eccentricity — its lyrics bouncing from the Biblical to the extraterrestrial, the punchy tag team of Black and Deal\u2019s vocals — is matched nicely by Gil Norton\u2019s clean, warm production, creating an inimitable, brazenly dynamic release that most definitely deserves a prime place in rock history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6884],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40698","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pixies","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40698"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}