Description

THE PIXIES Complete B Sides (2001 UK 21-track enhanced CD album which compiles a collection of B-sides from seven singles released during the 1980s & 90s including instrumental and live tracks two Neil Young cover versions and more plus the CD-Rom Section featuring the Here Comes Your Man & Allison music videos complete with the fold-out picture sleeve containing track by track notes by Frank Black GAD2103CD) Amazon.co.uk It is always an indicator of a band that were truly influential–a posthumous collection of retrospectives and compilations that approaches the size of the catalogue they recorded while still functioning. The release of Complete ‘B’ Sides puts the unfeasibly fabulous Pixies only a live album away from being as prolific since their split as they were before it. Complete ‘B’ Sides is, naturally, 10 times the record most bands come up with when they put all their biggest hits on one record. Not only is everything that made Pixies great here in plentiful amounts–Joey Santiago’s demented guitar wig-outs, Black Francis’s malevolent falsetto, the uniquely propulsive rhythm section of Kim Deal and David Lovering–but it contains some of their best work, notably live favourites “Vamos” and “River Euphrates” and the alternate, Surfaris-inspired take on “Wave Of Mutilation”. — Andrew Mueller