release date: Apr. 17, 1989
format: vinyl (CAD 905) / cd (2008 reissue)
[album rate: 5 / 5] [4,88]
producer: Gil Norton
label: 4AD / Rough Trade - nationality: USA
Tracklist: A) 1. "Debaser" (5 / 5) (live) - 2. "Tame" (5 / 5) (live) - 3. "Wave of Mutilation" (5 / 5) (live) - 4. "I Bleed" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Here Comes Your Man" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Dead" - 7. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" (5 / 5) - - B) 1. "Mr. Grieves" - 2. "Crackity Jones" - 3. "La La Love You" (4 / 5) - 4. "No. 13 Baby" - 5. "There Goes My Gun" - 6. "Hey" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "Silver" - 8. "Gouge Away" (4 / 5) (live)
2nd studio album by Pixies originally released on 4AD Records is the best album release in 1989, I think, and it's one of my all-time favourite albums. It is indeed Pixies at their best and is why it must be rated as a masterpiece. This is where Black Francis got it all right, leaving room for the others in the band: Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering, and where it seems they all directing everything into a dirty garage noise rock blasting synergy. Later on megalomania, or whatever it was, had Francis off track. After the fine but somewhat unfinished / incoherent debut Surfer Rosa (Mar. 1988) with promises of greatness they fulfilled all expectations on Doolittle. Never again should they make such a homogeneous and sparkling album of pure energy and playfulness. And although they were never bad later on, as I also enjoy Bossanova (1990) and Trompe le monde (1991), they never were quite as exquisite as here! Yes, once again Francis wrote almost everything but there was still room for Kim, although I think she found it a hard time working with Francis at this point. This is "only" their 2nd album but later on things went from hard to worse, as I guess Francis took the leadership into an ultimate phase and wanted control with everything. Pixies played very unlike any other band and all their releases share their specific signature but still, in my mind, this album is much better produced and orchestrated than their other albums. Gil Norton produced this as he did with the following two albums but I don't think he or the band ever got that synergistic touch right again. I think, this is the only album on which you hear traditional strings, and of course they shouldn't repeat themselves but progress and evolve but it really suits their noisy distorted sound to include soft, mellow strings - like adding another layer of contrast to their sound.
The album is deservedly enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, NME, Drowned in Sound 5 / 5, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
1989 Favourite releases: 1. Pixies Doolittle - 2. The Blue Nile Hats - 3. Kitchens of Distinction Love Is Hell
