The Pixies: Surfer Rosa
This is just one of those bands that I've been meaning to listen to for a while now. I listened to a little of this album a while back, but I have no particular memory of it, so...
Just after a few minutes I'm diggin' it. Fun and catchy and delightfully unhinged. Black Francis' vocals are too cool. Dude sounds like he's having the time of his life and entertaining a moderately serious personality disorder at the same time. Along with the chaotic music it gives this an energy that most bands could only dream of. I haven't listened to this enough to know whether I like this over Nirvana, but I definitely know which one I'd rather listen to on cocaine.
Steve Albini's production is simply fantastic. It has a power that makes a lifelong metalhead truly happy. It's stripped down and gives the album a strange, almost creepy vibe. I don't quite know why I think it's sort of creepy, but for whatever reason it's there. Maybe because the stripped down production leaves some hard to really define empty spaces under the music and with a certain amount of reverb immerses you in it so that you feel like you're trapped with the band playing right in your face in some sort of large empty room. With headphones at least.
As easy to listen to as this is, it feels like this is a bit hard to really grok in just one sitting, so I imagine that my opinion of the album still needs to be refined before it really becomes intelligible, but f
uck it. Trying is for losers.