Pixies: Bossanova [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 4AD reissue is pressed on 180g vinyl with a printed inner sleeve of credits. Bossanova reached No. 3 in the UK, Select named it album of the year for 1990, and "Velouria" went to No. 4 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Printed inner sleeve
• Lyrics included

About the album

Moving from Boston to Los Angeles sounds like a holiday, and Pixies treated it a bit like one. Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering took flats in the Oakwood apartments, Kim Deal flew in after making the first Breeders record with Steve Albini, and producer Gil Norton moved into the same complex. When the desk at Cherokee Studios started picking up pirate radio after six every evening, Rick Rubin, met by chance in a bar, had his secretary find them another room.

What came out is the band's sunniest, spaciest record. It opens with "Cecilia Ann," a surf instrumental, before "Rock Music" slams the door. "Velouria" is a towering love song, "Ana" is a sand-speckled surf idyll, "Allison" zips by in a blur, and "The Happening" finds Francis wondering aloud about friendly aliens. "Dig For Fire" became the second single, and Francis wrote "Blown Away" while on tour in Spain.

Q's Mat Snow said the band gave other rockers an object lesson in how it should be done, and it sits in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Their Oakwood neighbours included the comic Garrett Morris and the hair-metal band White Lion, so it's fair to say the building had range.

Also at Kops: more Pixies on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# CAD 0010), a reissue of the 1990 album.