Number 64: Doolittle by Pixies
Release: April 17th, 1989
Genre: Alternative
Favorite Tracks: Debaser, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Mr. Grieves
Where I heard it:
When I was in middle school, my 8th grade class was super tight knit with each other. After all, I only graduated with about 30 other kids. Some of the parents were incredibly accommodating and opened up their homes for us to hang out at on weekends and such. I quickly developed relationships with my friends' folks, one of whom had some of the most down-to-earth and cultured parents I'd ever met in my life. I would find myself riding my bike over to their house to hang out and play Rock Band with my friend in his basement. Not only did he own all the instruments, but he also had downloaded a majority of the game's additional content, which surprisingly included the entirety of Doolittle. My friend and his family had very high praise for the album, but I was put off at the time by its more avant-garde tracks like Dead and Crackity Jones. I couldn't understand how people I admired so much could listen to music so far out there. Well, sometimes all you need to find appreciation for a band is a change in tastes. Pixies' Doolittle is an album I've always kept tabs on over the course of several years, and I've finally warmed up to it enough to recognize what makes it so brilliant.
Got me a movie, I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know
Girlie so groovy, I want you to know
Don't know about you, but I am un chien andalusia
~ Debaser
What to expect:
The Pixies are almost singe-handedly responsible for setting the standard of alternative rock music in the 90's. Massively successful bands like Weezer, Radiohead, and Nirvana all credit the Pixies as a primary influence towards their music. The most notable attribute passed down from the Pixies is their formulaic use of dynamic range to contrast soft verses with loud choruses in the same song. If you pay close attention to Doolittle, most of its tracks are structured around this template. Quiet sections place a greater emphasis on Kim Deal's bass notes and simplify the rhythm of David Lovering's drums, while more cacophonous pieces can completely derail into unsettling guitar chords and off-key screaming fits characteristic of frontman Black Francis. For a great example of this concept in action, Tame follows this soft-loud principle to a tee. Doolittle also draws parallels to its successors through Francis' convoluted lyrical content that sounds nonsensical at face value, but upon further inspection reveals cryptic references to remarkably niche subjects. Black Francis peppers in allusions to the Bible, Jimi Hendrix, Japanese muder-suicides, and a 1929 surrealist short film by Salvador Dali, none of which are detectable without prior knowledge. Within the music of Doolittle lies an aura of mystery that is only further complicated with the added context of its delusional songwriting. Nonetheless, the album embraces obscurity and repetition with blatant disregard for familiarity. Doolittle crawled so that Nevermind could run.
If Man is five
Then the Devil is six
And if the Devil is six
Then God is seven
~ Monkey Gone go Heaven
Why it's my favorite:
Out of all the strange music I've enjoyed through the years, the Pixies are hardly the furthest on that spectrum. In reality, most of the instrumental tracks from Doolittle sound perfectly normal when isolated from Black Francis' unique brand of madness. There's a subtle dissonance created through minor additions like Kim Deal's haunting backing vocals or a diminished chord from lead guitarist Joey Santiago. Doolittle for me falls into this uncanny valley of music that is somewhat disturbing, but not for the reasons you'd typically find an album unappealing. This album leaves the listener wondering (and at times fearing) what's around the corner at every turn. Its unpredictability creates shock when a phrase resolves into normalcy rather than taking a creative detour. Doolittle breaks ground all on its own with its inventive approach to bending the conventions of what alternative music should sound like. It's pretty remarkable to hear the metamorphosis of the Pixies' musical infancy into the explosion of grunge and alternative music in the 90's that the band was directly responsible for. It's said that Doolittle may not have been the most popular album of all time, but every person who bought the album started a band because of the Pixies. Their reach knows no bounds, and Doolittle finally has gotten a hold on me over 30 years later.
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