A Reminder To - "Trompe Le Monde" By The Pixies.

The Pixies' final album is an emphatic musical statement. The hugely influential alternative band exited the music scene in almost the same way it entered - loud, weird, primitive and beautiful.

The four-piece band released one album per year after a neutron bomb of a debut full-length, Surfer Rosa, in 1988. By 1990's Bossanova, they had discovered how to polish their initially raw music with a sheen of clear production. While Trompe Le Monde ventures even further in this direction, it is also the Pixies' quirkiest and most racuous record, as dissonant (but crisp) guitars clash against pristine, jumpy bass lines and hectic drums, with Black Francis' famous screams getting louder all the time.

You can tell from the opening song that the band is getting more creative with age - a shimmering backdrop of furry guitars support Francis, musing over abstract poetry on a girl's tee-shirt ("'Why do cupids and angels continually haunt her dreams like memories of another life?' / is painted on her shirt in capitals"), with so much fury you'd think he was giving invaluable life advice - and he probably is.

This powerful mood is sustained well into the album. The songs stop on a dime, only for another to pick up the beat and jettison the sound back into the blue sky.

Francis' lyrics explore topics such as wandering aliens picking up Earth's transmission signals, the lifestyles of underappreciated revolutionary architects, and the aesthetics of dinosaur extinction - that's just in the first four songs. Even filler becomes an artistic excercise: "Space (I Believe In)" starts by lamenting the trials of the recording process ("We needed something to move and fill up the space / we needed something; this always is just the case") but moves into such an inspiring Joey Santiago guitar solo, the listener is left wondering how the band could actually consider this a fill-up track. Then, here's Francis in the bridge, announcing "Now, I'm gonna sing the 'Perry Mason' theme" and doing just that. Why wouldn't ya?

Trompe Le Monde means "Trick The World" in French - perhaps the trick was releasing an album with such vitality and intensity as the band was on its last legs. Francis would disband the Pixies by way of a press release a year later, as the "alternative revolution" was in full swing. But this was no half-hearted parting shot - the Pixies remained innovative and essential throughout their short but sweet career.
(Review By Nude as the News)



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