Pixies - Doolittle

this monkeys listening to heaven

i got this record just in time...i was being suffocated with music that all sounded exactly the same! so getting doolittle was really a good clean breath of fresh air for me. what makes it such a great album is all the variety in it. one minuet your dancing to "debaser" and the next your being moved by the sad, revealing pain of "hey" THEN your banging your head to "gouge away". so it truly is a work of art....in conclusion, if you like nirvana's first album and weezer's Pinkerton, you should get the album that inspired both of them...you wont be dissapointed August 20, 2008

I have no clue how this could even be given a bad review

While "Surfer Rosa" is probably the Pixies best album, this is my favorite. Which is the same as the Manic Street Preachers, because while I know that their album "The Holy Bible" is without a doubt their best, it is also their most abrasive. That is why I prefer "Everything Must Go" for the Manic Street Preachers and "Doolittle" for the Pixies.

Now, a lot of people might not even know who the Manic Street Preachers are, which is too bad, but even more might not understand the comparison. Here it is: Artistic as you can be, you need to some joy in your music to make it fun to listen to, and neither "The Holy Bible" nor "Surfer Rosa" have very much of that. But "Doolittle"...just listen to "Here Comes Your Man", "Debaser", "Hey", "Monkey Gone To Heaven", or even "Gouge Away" and you'll see how much fun and freedom the Pixies had with Gil Norton as a producer as opposed to Steve Albini.

As far as desired aesthetic, Steve Albini was very similar to Richey James in that they both wanted an autonomous execution for "Surfer Rosa" and "The Holy Bible" respectively. Yet the albums that came after these two let loose their iron fisted grips were jubilant in their freedom. (While I know it was very sad that Richey James had to disappear, I do not know if the Manic Street Preachers could have made an album as fun as "Everything Must Go" with him around, same as Steve Albini for the Pixies).

Am I making a statement that the two albums from each era were equal in scope and greatness even if different in execution? Yes I am. Both "Doolittle" and "Everything Must Go" are the most enjoyable albums from each group and should be listed among the best albums for the 80s and 90s respectively. August 5, 2008

Clearly the roots of Alt rock

I was born in the early 80's, and became a fan of alternative rock in the early to mid 90's when grunge was all the rage. As I listen to this excellent album, I hear alot of the bands of my youth. Weezer or Nirvana certainly wouldn't have been the same band without The Pixies' influence. Modest Mouse can definatly claim them as an influence too. Why I've waited so long to get this album is beyond me..

I can't really give this a proper review because I literally just started listening to it. It is, however, quite awesome with Debaser, Wave of Mutilation and Monkey Gone to Heaven being instant favorites. July 3, 2008

O Mon Dieu...

So I had heard about the Pixies(there actually is no "the" anywhere in the album's packaging...but HEY). They seemed to me like one of those "hyped" bands that get alot of credit for being influential but aren't actually that great(like Aerosmith...don't disown me just yet. Aerosmith fans). I even looked at this page awhile ago and wasn't that impressed. But then on a whim I got this album just so I could say I had it and had heard it. By the time I was 15 seconds into the first song "Debaser" i had realized how utterly mistaken I had been. Doolittle is by FAR the best 80s album I have ever heard. And it is among my top 10 favorite albums...possinly five (I don't actually keep a list). It's as other reviewers have noted, an excellent distillation of ROCK(has to be capitalised like that or else it could just be little hard gray things you find in the dirt) in it's purest form. Well, it's purest form with some kind of epic spastic weirdness thrown in. But you know, I think rock sounds best when you're questioning it's creator's sanity. So yes, Doolittle rocks, but it rocks in a very deranged (and unique) way. The vocals really help that utterly odd feel. that's actually mentioned int the editorial amazon review I believe, and whoever wrote that (the name escapes me) was quite right. Then there's the music...well I'm not so great at describing music. It's a very different take on the 'two guitars, one bass, one drum kit' lineup. Yeah I'm sure that helps.
Now I guess I should single out a few tracks. "Debaser" I think is the album's key track, because it's the first track and it pulls you right into the album without any kind of introduction. i bit of a pleasent shock. Uh....Some highlights are "I Bleed" (don't let the teenage romanticist[if it's not a word it should be] title get you down) in which Frank Black and Kim Deal do that great vocal "team" thing. It's also got a really good climactic thing going. Well, you know, sometimes it's hard picking highlighs from an album that's so consistently excellent. They're all good songs, don't worry. July 1, 2008

The Hype is Right! No Way!

The Pixies sometimes have such a legendary reputation that you might just end up walking away dissappointed. Well, I can't really say that it will live up to YOUR expectations, Doolittle doesn't even have to worry about being a product of hype. In fact, I wonder why the majority of the tracks on this album don't even _______ get enough mentioning from people like the rock music press. At least twelve of these songs are perfect.

It's certainly correct that this legendary (for good reason) Boston band is often imitated but never duplicated. Millions of bands have taken the sound of Nirvana (who are notoriously known for their Pixies influence and pointing MTV and the general public to alternative rock or whatever that story goes) and other bands that probably cited the Pixies blah blah blah (I got confused writing that, I will admit) No matter how people could slam this band for some stupid _____ like sounding like a lot of the stuff on the radio (yeah right), the Pixies boasted one-of-a-kind personality and weirdness, elastic, pounding, drums with a one-of-a-kind personal feel that squarely belongs only to the man behind the kit, and female backed up vocals and bass like the drums that none of those bands could ever accomplish, and that's not all. Just listening closely to the way these guys play, plan, execute, and mix up their breed of rock that no one could eclipse.

This is my first Pixies album, so I really can't compare it to others, though I have heard some off of Surfer Rosa and I can say, from the looks of it, this really is much slicker, especially in songwriting (the first track off of Surfer Rosa, Bone Machine, for example, sounds like the Pixies were still developing). The albums flows extremely well from each track to the next, and lending an ear to all the little details in this album, and they grow on you and you might just savor them like fine wine. Doolittle has many of these that I wouldn't do without. There's the crazy plodding drums of Mr. Grieves (and I'm not even mentioning what else is on that song), the surf guitar from Here Comes Your Man, all the lyrics, pretty much how each song is perfect and has me going for the skip button sometimes. If not for that, the songs themselves are pretty much played perfectly and the band sounds like they put all of their thought from beginning to end.

Doolittle is one of those albums that you can't really explain considering everybody else has already wrote everything and your review would just sound redundant. And while Gouge Away isn't up to par with the rest of the album (I really don't see why so many people like it), and No. 13 Baby is a disaster (Frank Black just destroys it right the moment he starts singing), this album is crammed with KILLER (and Gouge Away isn't bad, mind you). Get it.

9.5/10 June 5, 2008

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