[4/10]
‘Doesn’t come close to reaching the enormously high standards of their vast previous collection, but there are flickers of promise for the future’
EP-1 is the first new release bearing the celebrated ‘Pixies’ title since their 5th studio album: ‘Trompe Le Monde’ over 22 years ago. The EP was released in early September, following on from the news of the departure of bassist Kim Deal earlier this year.
The departure of the legendary Kim Deal may well out-shadow the ‘hype’ of the Pixies newest, melancholy and frankly uninspiring EP. The album’s general trend follows an inconsistent pattern of what sounds like a ‘watered down, less polished’ version of older, loud-quiet-loud tracks from previous albums, with tracks such as Indie Cindy, Another Toe and What Goes Boom particularly following said trend.
But maybe I’m being overly critical, as while I didn’t particularly enjoy three out of the five tracks on the EP, I did find myself feeling marginally reassured that the band I grew up loving hadn’t totally lost their quirky spark. The tracks Andro Queen and the band’s newest single Badboy highlighted the fact that Pixies are still capable of creating music with a different twist that’s worth a listen, even if they have unsurprisingly failed to match epics such as ‘Where is my Mind?’
So while EP-1 comes nowhere near matching the high standards set by their past, it can be said that there’s some, albeit little promise to suggest there are good times ahead.
James Stevens
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