Why don't people like Trompe Le Monde? I have a few theories:
1. Rock critics are slavishly devoted to the canon as it is. So Doolittle and Surfer Rosa, initially called brilliant, are still brilliant, and Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde, which aren't Doolittle or Surfer Rosa, are written off. Indie kids generally pay too much attention to rock critics.
2. Of the four songs I'd consider "hits" here-- "Planet of Sound," "Alec Eiffel," "U-Mass," and "Subbacultcha"-- two (the latter two) are kinda jokey.
3. The absence of Kim Deal, who gets just a few harmonies here and there, and no songs of her own.
4. A less-than-stellar opener in the title track, and a less-than-stellar finisher in the final track. (Compare them to "Caribou" and "Levitate Me," or "Debaser" and "Gouge Away.)
5. A pretty squeaky clean production style (definitely not Steve Albini), but also, weirdly, the most metallic songs of the band's career ("The Sad Punk," "Space (I Believe In)").
6. Trompe Le Monde does not have the songwriting quality of the band's previous efforts.
7. People are stupid.
In response to these theories:
1. My philosophy: read rock critics, heck, maybe even trust them a little bit, but do not let them dictate what you yourself find pleasing to the ear. If you genuinely hate "Straight Outta Compton" or the Beatles, continue to do so. For a while, I listened to the critical take on Trompe Le Monde rather than my own. That was a big mistake.
2. All of the Pixies' career is kinda jokey. "U-Mass" is probably the single dumbest Pixies song, but it's also a pretty great put-down, and "It's educationohhhhhhhhhhh!" is yet another brilliant Frank Black chorus. "Subbacultcha" rules, obviously.
3. When it comes to songwriting, Kim Deal was hardly an essential piece of the Pixies. Everyone loves "Gigantic," and with good reason, but the band was and will always be Frank Black's. He is no more a fascist dictator on this one than he is on the band's other records, all of which are driven by his voice, his lyrics, his melodies, and his vision.
4. The first and last song of Trompe Le Monde are the album's lowest points, a fact which puts it at odds with the traditional recipe for "classic" status. Neither "Trompe Le Monde" or "The Navajo Know" are bad, though... "Trompe" even gives you a nice preview of most of the album's ideas, many of which are contradictory (the soaring, melodic vocal line, the near-metal guitar, a weird breakdown, lyrics that reference both the cosmos and the band itself-- see #5 for more on all this).
5. Indie people hate extremes of cleanliness and dirtiness. But the producer here is Gil Norton, the same guy who did Doolittle and Bossanova. Trompe might be more explicitly poppy than either of those records, but it also rocks harder. The metallic songs are fantastic, too. Go ahead, count the hooks in "Space"... I always get lost along the way.
6. For diversity of songwriting, nothing in the Pixies' catalog tops Trompe (who puts "The Sad Punk" in-between the pop heaven of "Alec Eiffel" and a Jesus and Mary Chain cover that's better than anything that band ever did?). For quality, it ranks a close second behind Surfer Rosa. Or maybe not. Surfer rides mostly on its ferocity. Trompe gets by on its twisty, anthemic, gorgeous melodies.
7. Indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment