Pixies - "EP-2"

Anyone complaining about the Pixies ruining their legacy with new releases is being too precious. As a test, I listened to Doolittle this morning to see if it had been tarnished and – hey, guess what? – it still sounded as good as ever. It's a separate era, and Pixies in 2014 are a different beast, especially now that Kim Deal is out of the band. I don’t think anyone honestly expected them to be writing material on a par with their classics, but still, people coming to EP-2 with any expectations will likely be disappointed.

Last year’s EP-1 was far from excellent, especially for a band of the Pixies’ stature, but it had a couple of interesting detours – veering into glistening dream-pop on 'Andro Queen' and shaking up the structure of 'Indie Cindy'. The classic Pixies quiet/loud dynamic seemed to have been replaced by a textural one – sparse/lush – and the relatively glossy production suited the more gentle songs. The best bits were the ones that didn’t really sound like the Pixies at all, but could easily stand on their own.

In comparison to EP-1, some of the more familiar elements of the Pixies sound are back in evidence on EP-2 – Frank Black’s howl, Joey Santiago’s guitar texture – but this does nothing to disguise how rubbish the songs themselves are. In all honesty, it just reminds us how poorly this new material compares to the older stuff. 'Magdalena' is probably the best thing here, sounding as it does like a Bossanova offcut with its floaty chorus, but it’s distinctly unmemorable.

Of the four tracks, 'Blue Eyed Hexe' has been given the video treatment and seems to be clocking up the most radio plays, but it plods along at an interminable speed, and is ruined by stadium-ready drums and the same annoying guitar chug as the verses in 'Magdalena'. Any sense of threat built up in the verses is immediately dispelled by the awful chorus. 'Snakes' is even worse, with the lyrics being the main offender here.

'Greens and Blues' is apparently the band’s attempt to write a new set-closer to replace 'Gigantic'. Not that you’d be able to tell from listening. It's not too bad, but the chorus never takes off the way it should do, and the old dynamic shifts that used to seem so natural are sorely missed here. Some of the riffs and little guitar measures hark back to classic Pixies, though that temporary spark of recognition never ignites into anything remotely convincing, pastiche or otherwise.

Maybe if EP-2 had been offered as a free download, then I could have approached it without any expectations. As a paid-for release, it’s incredibly disappointing, and I doubt many Pixies fans will be eagerly awaiting the third and final instalment in the EP series. 

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Wig Out at Jagbags"

Wig Out at Jagbags is Stephen Malkmus’ sixth album with the Jicks – an impressive tally for this elder statesman of indie rock, and one more than he ever managed with his former band Pavement. Like previous album Mirror Traffic, Jagbags finds plenty of time for noodly guitar passages, but it’s not quite so self-consciously jammy as some of the more indulgent Jicks albums. This middle ground suits middle-aged Malkmus well – it allows his music to stretch out and breathe more than it was ever allowed to in Pavement, but the shorter song structures mean that the spotlight is never away from his words for too long.

Talking of lyrics, Malkmus is on pretty good form here. Other than the album title, there’s not much in the way of wacky wordplay – this is either a blessing or a bummer, depending on how much you like Brighten the Corners. Instead, we get a bunch of wry, vague musings on aging and comfortable living. Lyrically and musically though, Malkmus’ tongue is still firmly in his cheek, opening the slapstick punk of ‘Rumble at the Rainbo’ with a shout of “This one’s for you, Grandad!” before breaking down into a cod-reggae ending. The song’s main refrain of “Come here tonight and you’ll see, no-one has changed and no-one ever will,” is most likely an ironic joke at his own settling-down, but as always with Malkmus we can never quite tell.

As with so much of Pavement’s finest work, Jagbags is an album with a relaxed, autumnal feel. Its freewheeling nature means that even the faster songs only rarely feel in danger of falling off their axis. This is not necessarily a bad thing – after all, rollercoasters are still exciting even when we know the path set out for them. Solid guitar playing and frequent tempo shifts, like the false start at the beginning of ‘Houston Hades’, make up for some of the more dead-end meandering, and the production is impressive throughout, especially the brass section on ‘Chartjunk’ and ‘J Smoov’. The latter – a delicate ballad that builds to a subtle climax – is an easy highlight, and one of the best songs that Malkmus has written since latter-day Pavement, calling to mind the gentle lilt of ‘Major Leagues’.

Jagbags easily ranks in the upper tier of Jicks albums, possibly second only to the debut, which housed some of Malkmus’ most laser-focused songwriting. Despite the impressive production, it could do to be a bit more varied tonally, but rarely for a Jicks album, you won’t find yourself wanting to skip ahead. There are very few weak tracks, and the highlights are sensibly spread throughout, resulting in one of his most immediately satisfying albums in years. A wonderful beginning to to the year.


Highlights: ‘Lariat’; ‘J Smoov’; ‘Rumble at the Rainbo’