Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

[botley]

The new album leaked this morning. It's really freakin' good. This is not the thread to talk about that gossip shit. They're touring the UK & Europe for the next few weeks, which is exciting.

Paz Lenchantin throws down some killer bass on this one, it'll surely make you move your booty. Joey's fantastic lead guitar heroics are all here, with his trademark zaniness deployed to dress the set where required. The bouncy, surf-rock Dave is solid as ever, with just enough finesse to handle those occasionally tricky stop-start time changes. Charles has undeniably taken a leap forward in songwriting (with a lot of help from Paz, particularly with the words to song where she's singing lead), and settled into a more comfortable range vocally that doesn't lean on screaming his way through every chorus to sell it.

I've been following along with the documentary podcast they've been doing, which goes behind the scenes and follows the entire recording process in a fly-on-the-wall style, mixed with candid interviews with all the band members and producer Tom Dalgety — who did an absolutely superb job. It's fascinating stuff, and really enhanced my enjoyment of the album.

Here's their Late Show performance of "Catfish Kate":