A few days before Halloween it seems like the perfect title, “The Night The Zombies Came”, the tenth career album for Black Francis with his Pixies, the fifth work post-reunionhaving reached the twentieth anniversary of his return to the field. For the Pixies, roughly the same words used for the recent albums of Pearl Jam could apply, two historic groups that continue to propose themselves endlessly, but without being able to place a single song capable of carving out space for themselves within a hypothetical best of.
Yet the Pixies, compared to Eddie Vedder's band, today show a little more sincerity. They both record honest records, with some hints of excellence, but the Pixies appear more real, capable of maintaining a consistency of style and performance. “The Night The Zombies Came” also decrees entry into lineup of yet another new bassist, who obviously plays and sings exactly like the previous ones: Emma Richardson takes the place of Paz Lenchantin, who had taken the place of the prematurely deceased Kim Shattuck, who had taken the place of Kim Deal, in recent days the author of the solo debut without Breeders.
Having smoothed the impetuosity of youth, the 2024 Pixies confirm a sound institutionalized for some time, compressed into a well-established and melodic form adult-alternative-pop-rock. The most pressing songs are what agitate the fans (“You're So Impatient”, “Oyster Beds” and “Ernest Evans” are really not bad), alternating with songs with a structure built by working harder (“Primrose”, which opens the work sailing on soothing acoustic guitars, “Chicken”) and a couple of potential hits on the independent circuit (the alt-pop roundness of “Hypnotised”, “Motoroller” and “Kings Of The Prairie” work like a charm).
Then there are also situations that promise well but then are thrown away a bit (“Johnny Good Man”) and situations in which the band tries to climb the ladder (“Jane”, “I Hear You Mary”), saved in football right corner from the trade and some good guitar playing from Joey Santiago.
“The Vegas Suite” closes the game, an electric epilogue tinged with melancholy, then everyone goes down to the cellar to look for some ideas for the next album.
06/11/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
