Album Review: Pixies - Beneath The Eyrie

Pixies are back with their seventh studio album Beneath The Eyrie, a release that offers enough spookiness and folklore to suggest the reflection of real-life scenarios won't work, but actually they exist in blissful harmony. It’s a marriage of ominous vocals, haunting guitars, sometimes unsettling textures and a mish-mash of harmonic language. Accentuated by some riveting production efforts and vocalist Black Francis’ gruff and occasionally melancholic tone, it all makes for an oddly relatable narrative. 

The major draw in most of the album is the pounding bass line provided by Paz Lenchantin - it’s the unexpected hook you didn’t expect to love. Her performance in Catfish Kate stands out. Lenchantin’s melodic pumping provide Pixies’ tunes with a little extra oomph, a foundation that holds up the whimsical eeriness of the sometimes shoegaze-like runs from the rest of the band. She’s the glue, and yet, she ain’t sticky. 

Pixies’ inherent weirdness remains and they have, if anything, amped it up to a point where it no longer seems strange to be the way they are. Beneath The Eyrie is a fun little listen, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is therefore, thanks to the boisterous beats, splendid execution, and ambiguous nature of the stories it tells, a very good release.