Customer Reviews

Wave Of Mutilation: Best Of Pixies

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Pixies are an excellent alternative/modern rock band, and their greatness shines through on this Best Of album. With a whopping 23 tunes collected in one place, how can you go wrong?

Granted, hardcore Pixie fans might find that many of the tunes contained on the album lack the synergy they have when place in the surrounding context of the original albums from which they are drawn. That's a valid criticism of any and all greatest hit collections, but I nonetheless maintain that anyone who buys this album will not be disappointed.

The songs on the album combine loud, noisy and gritty guitars with catchy melodies-a rare combination indeed. They also write distinctive songs, not formulaic ones. Expect some distinctive lyrics, too. The lead vocals of Black Francis, combined with the (primarily) backing vocals of Kim Deal provide a good harmony. Holiday Song, Gigantic, Monkey Gone to Heaven, and Here Comes your Man are probably the most accessible and radio friendly tunes. However, I basically dig every single track on this album. This album showcases alternative/modern rock at its very best.

I had the pleasure of hearing the band play, here in 2004. Most all-if not all-of the tunes on this collection were part of the set list, and the band hasn't lost a step. If you want to be a cool person, buy this album.

This is a great compilation of 23 of some of the Pixies greatest songs. This is well worth it and I think the Pixies are one of the greatest indie influences of the past 18 years or so. What I love about the Pixies is that they are different, eclectic, and awesome to watch live. They shorten their songs somewhat when they are live.

Every song on this CD is a great example of what makes the Pixies so great and so different from what else is out there right now. Their songs are eccentric, witty, and melodic. They are not full of fluff that gets featured on Top 40 radio. Kim Deal and Frank Black are awesome and have influenced many, many bands. Check them out live if you ever get the chance. They will not disappoint. This CD is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar to the Pixies. It really has some great songs like "Monkey's Gone to Heaven", "Bone Machine", "Nimrods Son", "The Holiday Song", "U-Mass", and "Dig For Fire." Good thing about the Pixies is that they are still kinda obscure to most people and you can pick up their CD's really cheap. I don't think some people really get them, but they are a brilliant band.

That was the first Pixies song I heard, during the ending of Fight Club. I found out about the Pixies through that movie [which is very good] but although Where Is My Mind? went to the top 10 of my favorite songs, I never really checked out other Pixies stuff. But then I got a Spin magazine with them on the cover, and I read about how they influenced Radiohead and Nirvana, my 2 favorite bands. I cracked and bought this CD, and let me tell you, it was well worth it. There are some very amazing songs here, and pretty much all of the 23 songs are good. Repeated listenings may be needed for some songs, bu it was a great buy.

If you are familiar with the Pixies catchy, diverse, crazy-rock sound then you would most likely agree that every album they ever put out was exceptional and a worthy addition to your music collection. There are just too many good songs by these guys to even attempt making a best of collection. Songs not included like 'Motorway to Roswell', 'Is She Weird', and 'Subbacultcha' are some of the best songs they wrote - without these songs and many others, you cannot have a complete collection of the Pixies best.

The 5 star rating is for the music that is on this album, not the album itself. If you insist on buying this best of album then you will only realize how great this band is and end up buying their whole collection anyhow.

RECOMMENDATION: If you are not familiar with the Pixies it would be better to start by buying either 'Bossanova' (my personal favorite), 'Trompe Le Monde' (my next favorite), or 'Doolittle' (their most popular).

I bought this album as my introduction to the Pixies. It's been said that it's a bit of a waste of money compared to Doolittle or Surfer Rosa, because in the end you'll probably buy both of the above albums anyway. That's true to a point - I certainly did buy both, not long after buying this compilation, wasting the early half or so of the CD - but I'm still glad I bought it.

The nice part of this album is that it's set up a bit linearly stylisticly, unlike many "greatest hits" shufflings of tunes - it starts with a Come On Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa taste, then melds Doolittle into it, eventually moving on to Bossanova and beyond. Because the Pixies albums were distinct to the fine ear, after a few listens, you can get a good sample of what each album is about, and you can even hear the band's growth from from one style to the next. Listening to this CD, for example, I found that I loved the Surfer Rosa and Come On Pilgrim, liked the Doolittle, and didn't care for the rest of it. I bought the CDs according to this and have yet to be let down.

So for any neophyte, I'd recommend it as a first album - find out which parts you like most and hone in on them.

First I must confess that I am writing from the perspective of being an obsessive Pixies freak. The Pixies to me are one of the most important bands ever to have graced the planet of sound. Their cutting edge music, 99% of which was written by Black Francis (aka Frank Black), has directly influenced the music of heavyweights such as Radiohead, Nirvana and David Bowie. To me they are so important that I felt compelled to jet back to Britain from Beijing in June 2004 just to catch one of their comeback gigs at Brixton Academy... It was well worth the money and the jetlag!

So, I guess I should be happy with any new Pixies release (as most obsessed music fans find it difficult to criticize the bands they hold in such high esteem)? Not so I'm afraid.

Whilst there is not a weak song on this album, it seems like a pointless waste of time to recommend this album to people who have never heard the Pixies before. This album contains songs available on all four of Pixies studio albums, plus the B Sides album released in 2001. These albums are available at a bargain basement price in most music retail outlets and are no doubt even cheaper on the internet.

So, why not just start off buying Come on Pilgrim / Surfer Rosa, followed by Doolittle, then Bossanova, then Trompe Le Monde, and finally the B Sides album. These 5 albums wouldn't be very expensive (GBP25, $50) and once you have them you would have all of the songs off of this pointless 'Best Of' compilation, plus alot of the better songs that were missed off (Cactus, I've Been Tired, Space (I Believe In) etc.) Another reason not to buy WOM is that a new Pixies studio album release is due at the end of 2005, which gives you even less reason to purchase this compilation.

In fact if you wanted a decent Pixies 'Best Of' compilation then search online for the live reunion shows that are for sale, as they will contain live versions of all of the above tunes (plus more) and have the added atmosphere of a gig.

It makes you wonder why the record company didn't bother to add some previously unreleased recordings, which would have made this worthy of purchase not just for newbies but also for long time fans.

This is a much better introduction to the Pixies than the previous "Death To The..." compilation. I am not big on best of's, but this has pretty much all the "hits". My only question is why include two b-sides, when they just released a b-sides collection where people can obtain these songs if they want them. I usually don't quibble over song selections on hits cds, but "Cecilia Ann" and "Head On" would have been much better, and much more obvious choices! Anyway, if you're just getting you're feet wet, this is a good place to start, to see if you are up for the challenge that is PIXIES!

Buy them all. Seriously. Call me a fanboy but I'm saving you time here. Just buy all the Pixies CDs and be done with it. Buy this single CD and there are consequences, okay? The obvious being you'll miss out on the rest of their music. Why do that to yourself? You're a nice person, you deserve better than that. If you did buy this cheap single CD, how do you think people you admire, like and respect will think about you? That's right, they'll know you're a jerk. Really. They'll see this in your collection and not say anything but the next day they'll talk to each other plus there'll be someone there you really like but haven't gotten round to asking out yet and they'll overhear when people are saying, can you believe it? Only the Best Of? What a jerk. And the person you really like who overheard that conversation will be like woah, I'm not going there. You'll miss out on not just great sex but possibly the love of your life. Do you want that? Honestly? Christ, even your parents will give you one of those looks, and then just turn away without saying the obvious, which is you are such a jerk. These people raised you! You want to disappoint them like that? After all they've done for you? Good grief, they're at the end of their lives and you do something like this? And don't say, oh no, I couldn't afford them all because we'll all know - that's right, everyone one on the internet will KNOW what a jerk you are because you can buy all the Pixies CDs second-hand and it's totally affordable even to a homeless person with a major addictive and psychiatric illness. If a person like that, struggling on every level, can manage to own every Pixies album, what kind of low-life creep are you not to have made the effort to click a few damn buttons? You know what? Why am I bothering with you? Go ahead. Buy the damn single CD and spend the rest of your life wondering what happiness could've been like. Jerk.

I thought about buying this one, but then I remembered -- I own it already. A decade ago they called it "Death to the Pixies." The DVD is interesting though.

Death to the Pixies, on the other hand, is a dual-disc set: one being a good mix of Pixies sounds, the other being a live show. Buy that one. It makes more sense.

This is a fairly solid album and is very well done. BUT if you have Death to the Pixies than this album has little to add. A few tracks are notable such as "Winter Long" and "Into the white" Also some of the single versions are interesting to listen to, but not worth buying again for many repeated tracks. Instead of buying this, buy Death To The Pixies and go download Winter Long and Into the white of iTunes or something.