FOLLOWING the lukewarm reception for 2014's Pixies comeback LP, Indie Cindy, Black Francis and co are hoping for an easier ride with Head Carrier, the sixth album from the seminal rebooted Boston indie rockers.
Much has been made of the departure of bassist/singer Kim Deal, who quit the band just prior to the last record to concentrate The Breeders' reunited Last Splash-era line-up.
However, if you played Head Carrier to a Pixies fan who'd been on Mars since the release of Trompe Le Monde in 1994, they probably wouldn't even realise that Kim isn't on it.
There are a couple of clangers: the melancholic All I Think About Now – sung in a very 'Kim Deal karaoke' style by new bass player Paz Lenchantin – sails perilously close to actually ripping off the band's classic moment Where Is My Mind? while Black Francis's manic vocal on rocker Baal's Back is a little too pointedly 'retro' for comfort.
Elsewhere, the eerily pretty Might As Well Be Gone and the poppy churn of Tenement Song land on more dignified middle-ground between 'then and now'.
The moody squall of the title track makes a great opener, setting-up Classic Masher's catchy indie rock duet, and the frantic Um Chagga Lagga could easily have been on Bossanova back in the day.
Along with sub-ska punk rocker Talent and surf country lament of Oona, it should easily slot into the band's live set beside longer-established favourites.
Not a classic, perhaps, but far from the career-low calamity you'll likely read about elsewhere.
