The first time
Pixies took a hiatus and
Black Francis wrote a bunch of songs on his own, it led to the launch of his solo career as
Frank Black. Three decades later, when a burst of writing resulted in over 40 songs -- including material earmarked for a retro-Americana solo album with
Bobby Bare, Jr. -- he brought them to the band and producer
Tom Dalgety to get first pick. Though
Pixies will probably never perform in Stetsons,
Doggerel reflects an acceptance that their music doesn't have to conform to expectations. Leaning into the earthy influences of country and folk may not be an expected move for the band, but it feels surprisingly natural. As a solo artist,
Francis explored roots and country elements with great success on
Honeycomb and
Fast Man Raider Man (which included
Bare Jr. among its players). There's also plenty of shared musical DNA between those genres and the 1950s and '60s pop that colors "Haunted House," a tale of the spirits and memories happily spending their afterlives in an English manor. This feeling of supernatural commitment continues on the title track, which was inspired by folk songs about settlers who couldn't leave their town no matter how often they tried. Folk is an underappreciated building block of
Pixies' music (this is the band that namechecked
Huesker Due and
Peter, Paul and Mary in that famous want ad, after all) and one that shines on the equally pretty and ominous "Thunder and Lightning."
Though comparisons to
Pixies' earlier albums are inevitable,
Doggerel feels more post-
Beneath the Eyrie than a callback to their '80s and '90s work. That album marked the first time the band seemed truly comfortable since re-forming, with a confidence that allowed them to pull off some fancier tricks that they embellish on here. On the spacey surf-punk stomp of "Nomatterday," tempo shifts are the new loud-quiet-loud; on "Dregs of the Wine," the group pairs conversational lyrics with
the Who's windmill riffs and a typically great solo from
Joey Santiago (
Santiago wrote the music to "Dregs" and co-wrote the words to another song, "Pagan Man").
Eyrie also added a slower burn to
Pixies' repertoire that they make the most of on
Doggerel. Slowing down enhances "Vault of Heaven"'s interstellar spaghetti Western drama, while the galloping, biblically minded breakup song "You're Such a Sadducee" heightens its poignancy by letting the fundamental disagreement of its coda ("I'm turning around/You're burning it down") ring out infinitely. Even with some of the edges smoothed off,
Pixies are still as idiosyncratic as ever, but where "Get Simulated"'s musings on the digital afterlife might have been punctuated more emphatically before, they now slither into listeners' ears.
Doggerel pushes the boundaries of what a
Pixies album can be, but not aggressively -- quite the opposite, in fact. The peaks may not be quite as high as they were on
Beneath the Eyrie, but it's still a lot of fun to hear the band's reinvention. ~ Heather Phares
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