PIXIES Poll: The best track on Doolittle

Yeah, Crackity Jones is probably the closest thing to filler on it, but, complementary to what I said above, it works well as a bridge between the two songs surrounding it.

I’m just an idiot, best to disregard my pronouncements

Lol youre alright, Im w you totally on Kim being one of the best songwriters!

This was the absolute peak, right here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bxPbWicgc

Been playing Doolittle a lot on the road lately, because by chance the cd happened to be within arms reach in the car. Renewing my love for this damn album once again, the worn-off vinyl stashed away somewhere. Read up on the wiki for crying out loud, especially about the lyrics: so many biblical references that pass me by. And I was force-fed the bible till age 6. It was weird to read about Frank Black crossed with the bible and the many biblical references. Pixies is the one band where I feel the music up to a tee without knowing what the lyrics are actually about. I enjoy them partly because their lyrics mean nothing to me. And I intend to keep it that way.

(fp'd all of you suckers who said this album needs "trimming". Fuck that shit. No filler all killer.)

Also 'Wave of Mutilation' was robbed, obv, because it is the best song in the universe. But I can live with the results, regardless.

Good album, but it's no Surfer Rosa.

I beg you, honestly, what makes 'Surfer Rosa' a better album than 'Doolittle'?

tame is def my favourite on here, one of the best screamers the pixies ever did

They both need trimming IMO

Well, Steve Albini for one.

xp

Come on man, humour me. "Albini, for one" is a p weak take explaining why you prefer Surfer Rosa over Doolittle. Albini is good, and he touched upon the ceiling of magic at times, but with the Pixies he did not.

I find Doolittle overly slick and its more overt poppiness does not cater to my lingering wannabe edginess. I love In Utero far more than Nevermind for the exact same reasons. I also think Surfer Rosa has the better songs, except maybe for Hey. That is all.

No album under 40 minutes needs trimming, tbh. I don't know if it was this album or "Trompe Le Monde" where Frank Black cited Buddy Holly to justify song lengths. Certainly "Trompe" has some impressively short songs, but Doolittle songs are pretty short on average as well. Bossanova has often been my fave, and coincidence or not has the longest songs, I think.

Fair. I disagree (re: "better songs". Pixies never bettered songs like Debaser, Tame, Hey, Monkey, Mutilation etc) but at least I know what you mean now.

I too love In Utero way more than Nevermind.

xp

xp It was 'Doolittle' where Frank Black justified the song length mentioning Buddy Holly :)

dunno think motorway to roswell is as good as anything on Doolittle

Also 'Wave of Mutilation' was robbed, obv, because it is the best song in the universe.

(And Nevermind is SO much better than In Utero it's not in the same universe.)

I was a Bossanova stan for a number of years—partly because I truly thought it was better, but also to be contrarian—however, at some point within the last 10 years, I've looked deep within myself and made peace with the fact that Doolittle is their most well known and best selling album for a reason: it's perfect.

A lot of people consider Surfer Rosa superior to Doolittle which mystifies me, I think it's probably a function of SR (or that era) being your first exposure to Pixies

I kiss you JF, if you allow me to do that with full consent, because you are otm.

I heard Doolittle first fwiw (in the late 90s). When I later discovered Surfer Rosa, the extra noisiness and amateurishness struck me as a more optimal take on their overall aesthetic. And despite its overexposure, I still stand by 'Where Is My Mind?'.

I think Albini's "recording" has aged far better than Norton's "production," but for an album in 1989, Doolittle still sounded pretty rock n roll.

Incidentally, I do love Doolittle as well, I just feel like it tends to sanitise the bedlam a little too much in spots. I mostly blame the production, once again (I am a bit of an Albini junkie, though).

xp

Scott Ian like Norton's production on the Pixies albums so much, he hired him to produce an Anthrax album.

No need for any Pixies album to be 40 mins; their tradition of 2 min songs/repetition/fast/loud - 30-35 minutes is enough and would improve basically any album they did

That... says it all, really? (Sorry.)

xp

88-93 was a weird time, dude.

Never mind. Apparently my brain completely fabricated that factoid. I thought he produced Sound of White Noise, but that was Dave Jerden. Not Gil Norton.

<offtopic> Look at those votes! ILX was a busy place eleven years ago.

Jerden kind of sounds like Gil Norton.

There was a concert video posted on another Pixies thread recently which must have been recorded around the time of Doolittle and I was surprised how close it sounded to the album, so I don’t think it was Norton changing their sound so much as they were changing it themselves.

Gil Norton elevated the Pixies from pretty great to really great (exhibit A: the Purple Tape) but the bassline on Gouge Away alone, or the screaming of F. Black on Debaser, or the second verse-to-chorus movement of 'Wave of Mutilation' show the band's uniqueness. No producer could have elevated that, nor destroyed it.

xp That's interesting, I'd like to see that.

You guys have seen the 30th anniversary SR/Pilgrim reissue splurge I take it?

http://pixies.4ad.com/

Concert video is here:

Pixies: Classic or Dud

No producer could have elevated that, nor destroyed it.

"Which producers could have destroyed 1987-1989 Pixies and how?" is kind of an interesting question actually.

I heard Doolittle first fwiw (in the late 90s). When I later discovered Surfer Rosa, the extra noisiness and amateurishness struck me as a more optimal take on their overall aesthetic. And despite its overexposure, I still stand by 'Where Is My Mind?'.

― pomenitul, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:18 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not having a go, but 'Where is my mind?' to me always sounded like it should/could have been a Doolittle song. Should rather than could.

ty O. Nate!

"Which producers could have destroyed 1987-1989 Pixies and how?"

Shep Pettibone

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine a Stock, Aitken & Waterman take on "Wave of Mutilation" now and it isn't pretty.

I could also imagine Phil Spector forcing them at gunpoint to go loud-loud rather than quiet-loud.

Trying to imagine a Trevor Horn led Pixies in the vein of Welcome to the Pleasuredome FGTH.

Oh God! Jeff Lynne.

There's that aborted early REM session with Stephen Hague that shows what happens when you pair an indie rock band with the wrong producer.

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine a Stock, Aitken & Waterman take on "Wave of Mutilation" now and it isn't pretty.

― dorsalstop,

uh it would be awesome and sound like Stephen Hague's work on Pere Ubu's contemporaneous Cloudland.

xp I'd never listened to that Stephen Hague version of "Catapult" before, but... I kinda think it's ok?

just ok.

Bit lifeless.

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde