Anybody who has been even vaguely aware of Pixies’ steady release of EPs and their recent sudden lineup changes will know that they have had a crisis on their hands. And material was the least of their problems. Since reforming in 2004, the band have been touring constantly and have released a steady stream of EPs that have been greeted with mixed reception. The content of these EPs constitute the majority of Indie Cindy’s content, and so it was really a question of whether the finished item, the next great landmark following 1991’s Trompe le Monde, could defy expectations.
But, let’s face it, the tough truth is that a band that has been around for so long that even our parents are fans (and probably were so before Fight Club brought them to a new generation) ought to do one of two things: either reproduce the original sound so closely that they make everyone wonder where they’ve been, or to depart from the old and focus on bring their sound to a distinctive new level — a move towards the electronic is customary here. Indie Cindy seems to be stuck in limbo between the two. Both the opener ‘What Goes Boom’ and the title track try hard to recapture the bands unpredictable yet iconic sound. Unfortunately, most songs fall far from their objective, ending up sounding overworked and ultimately unimpressive. On the other hand, tracks such as ‘Silver Snail’ are lyrically interesting, while ‘Blue Eyed Hexe’ evokes the good old headbang-worthy, hellraising sound we know and love thanks to the impressive guitar riffs of Joey Santiago and drum work of David Lovering. The synth-heavy ballad ‘Andro Queen’, probably the most innovative of all the tracks, fails go anywhere interesting, instead awkwardly propping up Black Francis’ weathered vocals — it feels as though every artist is making a statement lamenting the roboticism of society these days.
Ultimately, for a band that built itself around a reputation for rockability with a slightly scrappy texture to their songs and bizarre lyrics, many howls are raised but no statement is made. Some of the songs are worth revisiting,
but as a whole the album is somewhat mundane and under-whelming. It is probable that things could have gone much worse, but after such a great hiatus the band must still be asking themselves “where is my mind?”
