Never mind Nevermind: for me, the albums that signified that the 90s were going to be musically exciting were by Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Pixies…amongst others.
Everyone raves about Doolittle and it’s perfectly fine, but for me, Surfer Rosa is still perfection. Originally, it was to be titled Gigantic after the glorious song by Kim Deal, but the band worried that this would be seen as a reference to the beautiful picture of the topless flamenco dancer on the front cover. So instead, they took a line from the fun, frenetic Oh My Golly.
It’s the playfulness and surrealism that mark the album as so special, not to mention the bilingual songs. Spanish is sung alongside English, and as with Madonna before them, Catholic iconography and sexual depravity were woven into the imagery. We’d never heard anything like them in rock music before. Black Francis sounded possessed and wild, funny and knowing, the guitars feral. It was this capricious nature that sealed Pixies’ sound. No-one knew what was coming next.
For me though, as with Kim and Thurston and Kevin and Bilinda, it’s the interplay of female and male voices that makes Surfer Rosa so gorgeous. The Jungian energy makes this a classic album, and I still get excited and chuckle when I hear the studio chatter. It’s the tits!
Hit The North 