Album Review: Pixies - Indie Cindy

The issue of protecting the Pixies' considerable legacy must have weighed heavily when contemplating their recorded comeback, and losing key member Kim Deal at the start of the sessions – who was as integral to the band's charisma as she was their bottom-end – was a blow that would have floored lesser bands. Still the remaining trio soldiered on and the result is Indie Cindy, their fifth long-player and first since 1991's Trompe Le Monde.

The collection certainly makes more sense as an album proper rather than the series of EPs and drip-fed tracks which characterised its unconventional release strategy. The Gil Norton-produced affair sounds fantastic and is bookended superbly with requisitely strong Pixies tracks What Goes Boom and Jaime Bravo, but in between it's a bit of a grab bag. Lead single Bagboy has grown in stature with the passing of time and is a standout, while the slightly inane glam stomp of Blue Eyed Hexe also demands attention. Their trademark quiet-loud dynamic is apparent in places (the surf-tinged title track) but is largely eschewed in favour of more conventional structures, yet even the more anodyne numbers have redeeming features like a fascinating off-kilter Black Francis arrangement (Andro Queen) or a killer Joey Santiago guitar line (Snakes).

It's definitely not Pixies' finest album, but who'd expect that after such a lengthy lay-off? While irrefutably imperfect, Indie Cindy remains a welcome addition to an inimitable canon, and (hopefully) a signifier of fine things to come.