PIXIES Poll: The best track on Doolittle

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

Hague/REM sounds just like The Cars.

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde

― kraudive, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:03 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. While I disagree that Surfer Rosa is a better collection of songs than Doolittle (as someone mentioned above), Trompe le Monde crushes both IMO. They should have never recorded another note of music as the Pixies after that, as it was a perfect album to go out on. Bossanova is the worst of their original run, but two thirds of it was still up to their then usual high standard.

Thirded.

Yeah the Hague "Catapult" is in no way good, too much chorus, too many ridiculously dinky keyboard figures. I mean, it's an unimpeachable song, I'm sure I would still have liked it if it had come out this way!

Good album, but it's no Trompe le Monde
― kraudive, Monday, October 15, 2018 10:03 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

absolutely, what a perfect run at the end of the record too!

I think it's perfect front to back. I still play TLM lots and I've barely played the others since the initial reunion gigs probably. So much heart and soul.

And I think it's amazing how TLM's reputation has totally changed recently.

I can only guess Albini's dismissive remark about them being a boring bar band was fueled by some personal animus because that is just wrong

Yeah, he's totally walked that comment back (like 15 years ago iirc). He and his wife are very tight with Kim now, plus he engineered the recent Breeders record.

He *loves* Kim.

I have no problem believing that Steve loves Kim and dgaf about the Pixies

who doesn't?

30 years old

wow! i still remember my brother getting mad at me for stealing his cassette and taking it with me to summer camp that year.

you were right to do it

Am I the only one who thinks "Hey" kinda sucks?

TBF, this may just be a side-effect of my decreasing amount of patience for listening to Frank Black do his thing.

Yes, I think you are

Also, 30 years later "Silver" is still great

idk how i feel about it now, but it sounded pretty great when i was 13/14 -- my favorite doolittle memory is a mental montage of all of my different friends who liked this album all enjoying their different favorite songs. i am delighted when i think about all of us being little kids jamming out to doolittle.

it's great and I still love Mara Carlyle's "Hey"/"1 Thing" mashup thing also

apparently doolittle was just certified platinum in december

I wouldn't say that "Hey" sucks but it would not have occurred to me that many people would pick it as the best song on this album (or even top 3 tbh).

^ I've barely heard the album in two decades, but that does seem surprising. The ranking is otherwise pretty much exactly what I'd have guessed from radio and other chatter at the time.

I now see that "Hey" is extremely popular on Spotify too. Was it in a film or something?

Omg 15M more plays than "Debaser", 22M more plays than "Monkey Gone to Heaven". Wtf?

So apparently there was a viral Youtube video with it in 2005? (According to the blurb in the RS Readers' Poll, where it was, ulp, #1).

Aaaah!

Looks like another one of these then:

songs that weren't a bands biggest hit, but have gone on to be their legacy song and biggest iTunes seller

Revisiting the album, I do see why people like it. It's not as immediate but has a more interesting structure than the more straightforward verse/chorus songs, with a lot of dynamics.

(Video helped.)

It's been a fan deep fave for as long as I can remember

It's definitely a song I remember latching onto almost immediately

Saw them in Boston on the Doolittle tour when I was a freshman in high school. It was loud as shit. Yes, I'll be bragging about this until my dying day.

I still think it's their best album and "Hey" is a dope track.

cute girl i was really into back in the day told me she thought "Hey" was sexy! there was no going back after that

There's a kind of anguished lovelorn quality to it that hits on an emotional level that's sometimes missing from their other songs, where his typical yelpy weirdness creates more distance.

xpost, saw them on that tour as well, this show:
TAAAAAME
and yes, I still occasionally brag about it, too ;)

I'm kind of impressed at how enthusiastic the crowd is in that video, considering that it's an overseas festival. I pretty much thought of them as a "local" band at the time, and they were still at the club level in their hometown.

They were very popular quite early in the Netherlands - Surfer Rosa was in the top 10 of the major music mag in 1988

HEY was also #1 on a RS reader’s poll from 2013.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-pixies-songs-10588/1-hey-227479/

I'd probably vote for 'Hey'.

Moodles is right. It taps into some sort of soul and vulnerability that is constantly hiding in their other songs. I can hear why some people find it sexy, it’s about lust and shame, self-destruction through sex addiction. Kind of mirrors the angst of being a horny teenager but contrasts it with adult world consequences like divorce and being a father/mother.

Also the song itself captures the band at the top of their game, the performance feels very effortless. the album version is even a live take iirc.

'Hey' is incredible. There's about 2 or 3 songs on this that I'm less keen on that the others, but 'Hey' isn't one of 'em.

Still prefer Trompe le Monde overall.

The 2013 RS poll was the one I linked.

(and the writer of that one did attribute the recent popularity of "Hey" to the viral video)

Are you all talking about this video? The one of two girls in their bedroom? This one with... *checks notes*....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_CSo1gOd48

... 34.4 million views?

setlist.fm suggests the band were fond of performing it too. Seems to be the earliest Doolittle song they played and they did so pretty consistently from about the time Surfer Rosa was released.

I'm not surprised because I think it unworthy. I've just virtually never heard anyone mention or play it. I certainly didn't hear it on radio or see it appear in listener polls locally at the time. (In contrast to the likes of "Debaser", "HCYM", "Monkey", "WoM", "#13 Baby" and "Gouge Away".) I'm likely just stuck with a parochial view by failing to give the band much thought since the pre-internet era, despite this possibly being my most played record as a 15-year-old.

didn't realize it was bigger than WoM or debaser (once used diagetically on the o.c. to denote a Cool But Juvenile Man) and was unaware of the youtube vid, but "hey" was def a cd-r staple and frequent jam attempt amongst pixies kids (who were mostly girls actually) at my high school c.2003.