Indie Cindy

Pixies were a product of their time, and while it’s asinine to expect a band would sound the same after more than 20 years between studio albums, it doesn’t change the fact that the Pixies come across as a little worse for wear.

Despite the inability to seamlessly pick up where they left off in 1993 with Trompe Le Monde, the group’s songwriting skills still thankfully remain intact. ‘What Goes Boom’ is a powerfully aggressive opener, followed by the summery ‘Greens And Blues’, which makes for an interesting attempt to emulate the dichotomy of their classic surf-rock sound.

Prior to leaving the band, Kim Deal’s backing vocals as part of ‘Bagboy’ make it sound the most like their Surfer Rosa or Doolittle days, and while ‘Another Toe In The Ocean’ should really be condemned for how annoyingly catchy it is, it remains one of the album’s most memorable tracks.

Not all is peachy however, as the one-two punch of the repetitive ‘Blue Eyed Hexe’ and the bafflingly, alien sounding ‘Ring The Bell’ stick out as being the first few perpetual nails in the coffin due to their over-simplicity and skewed atmosphere.

Black Francis’ singing sounds more aged than matured, but luckily he still carries a unique vocal style that really helps to usher in a sense of personality throughout the album’s twelve tracks.

At its worst, Indie Cindy is inconsistent, and while all the building blocks of a classic Pixies album are present, their segregation make it a less focused listen. Approaching it with an open mind will yield some enjoyment, but if you go into this expecting classic Pixies, you’ll be unsurprisingly disappointed.

Listen to ‘Greens And Blues’ from Indie Cindy here:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine