release date: Aug. 1990
format: cd (CAD 0010 CD) / sacd (2008 reissue - UDSACD 2035)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Gil Norton
label: 4AD Records / Mobile Fidelity - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Cecilia Ann" - 2. "Rock Music" - 3. "Velouria" - 4. "Allison" - 5. "Is She Weird" (4 / 5) - 7. "All Over the World" - 8. "Dig for Fire" (4 / 5) - 12. "Hang Wire" - 14. "Havalina"
3rd full studio album by Pixies, and their second time working with the English independent producer Gil Norton. The album is by many considered the weakest release by the band. I don't see it as solely weak and uninteresting, but yes, it's not their best, and it's also obvious that the production sound has changed. Critics find that the sound is blurred, too heavy and that it lacks space, and band members have recalled the recording process as a bit of a mess. On their previous material the music was mostly written by Black Francis but Kim Deal also provided one or two songs for the albums, and beside that played a more visible singing part, but this time everything is by Francis (except "Cecilia Ann", written by The Surftones), and it seems like an area of conflict within the band that only got worse. Unable to have much of a say or able to provide songs for the new album, Kim formed The Breeders and they soon released the acclaimed debut album Pod, also 1990. The music on Bossanova seems much inspired by 1960s surf rock and the noise rock, indie rock, alternative rock is more polished in a way, although, a song like "Rock Music" has much more in common with fierce and flaming guitar-driven tracks like "Tame", "Debaser" and "Bone Machine" on their previous albums than any of the remaining songs on this one. Most of the songs have focus on a softer and more quiet chorus with much more harmony than normal with Pixies. My favourite tracks are "Is She Weird" and the ultimate Pixies pop song "Dig for Fire", which got a lot of airplay on the Danish national radio station P3 that year, and that's a song I never get tired of. I think the album is weak in the sense that it lacks direction. As I mentioned, some tracks could fit nicely on their previous albums and others have more in common with the follower, and in that way it's somewhat unfinished. The team work was not perfect and that already signaled the end of the band with Deal concentrating on her side-project The Breeders and Francis taking over as a self-appointed chief of the band. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
In 2008 the album was reissued in a remastered version. I have both albums, but frankly, don't understand the need to update the original (heavy or not) sound of the original release. Yes, the remastered version has another sound - but better? I don't think so.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Blender 5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
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| 2008 Remaster, Mobile Fidelity |
