Post-reunion Pixies are still searching for an overhaul of their sound. They are plugging away at as much as they can and their lack of inspired new material is not through lack of trying. Frank Black and the band are powering through with a consistency right below the original run but the hunger for creativity still runs deep. These veins are still giving listeners what they want, more from the group behind Bossanova. Motoroller may be plain, a simple single in the lead-up to The Night the Zombies Came, but it is a close shot at their new sound, which just happens to be the guitar-heavy noise of old. We can praise bands for carving a new niche or performing the oldies with a new air about them but Pixies has neither and has, and still is, struggling for a new spot. At least with Motoroller, we know where they stand.
A solid track, then. This is the groundwork which gives Pixies their groovy swing back and though it lacks the catchy appeal they were so desperately trying to gun for with their overhaul of instrumental flavours, it does mark a neat experience. Better than You’re So Impatient, that is for certain. The trouble with their lead single is the goading material found in title and in writing. This is dropped rather sharply for Motoroller, which is focused on listing the instruments used and vaguely heard in the background in the hope of capturing a stomping maturity for returning fans. It works to some extent. It is hard to deny the catchy notions within and it is easier still to fall for them. But pick them apart a little, give the song another go around and there lies the major problems with Motoroller, and Pixies as of late.
We are keen to give them the benefit of the doubt. Pixies still have some teething issues on their return to studio and stage, struggling to fit the mould of new material into their classic works. It is not the sound of their old material which lingers but the worry there is little left to give in the way of contemporary thought and sound. Washing away sin and looking for reinvention is the sharpest they have sounded since they set about looking to revive their sound and move it towards exorcising their past. Motoroller is an intensely tricky song to hate because it is the band at their most honest in years. And yet this openness soon closes up, in its place a slick instrumental leap for Joey Santiago.
There is heart in this Pixies song and their performances of late indicate they want this work to be what fans are excited to hear, but there is slim chance of this occurring. Butcher Where is My Mind? all you like, the chance of reappraisal comes with the new sound. Flickers of this direction can be heard on Motoroller but a sub-three-minute song is not going to change Pixies’ fortunes, no matter how solid a track it is. Catchy in the loosest way possible, their likely last single ahead of The Night the Zombies Came is a reason to be hopeful of their upcoming album, but fans have been burned before by these bright lights.
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