Where some artists spend years toiling away in the studio, trying to perfect their sound, Pixies managed to get in and out for their second album. Financial restrictions will play their part no matter the artist, but there is a sense of frenetic, creative energy found on Doolittle. It sounds as though the music was ready to come out, and because of that, there is little room for overthinking. Doolittle still prides itself on continuing the alternative rock, borderline punk merits of the first album, Surfer Rosa, but advances what the group stands for. Pixies are noise rock without the erratic portions. They are loud and volatile but in an understandable way, in a constantly roaring instrumental effectiveness which does not steal the spotlight from one moment or another. Clear enough on Debaser, brilliant on a short punch of sound like the ever-brilliant Mr. Grieves. Doolittle is a brilliant package.
Part of the charm found on Doolittle is the guitar work from Joey Santiago. They back the out-there occasions, the commentaries on the world according to Black Francis. Wave of Mutilation could very easily be a song which uses the up-tempo shock of preceding song Tame, but the softer suggestions found within are brilliant. Doolittle is an album of subverted expectations, of making sure there is a slightly friendlier route through the carnage heard on those biblical, tortured lyrics. Balance is crucial. Pixies found themselves as the counterculture of the late 1980s, and to do that, the dynamic of bleeding, of Christ-like imagery, needs to be offset by a softer tone. Not softer in image but in design, in backing the harsher flow of the album. Hence Kim Deal and David Lovering’s softer playing style, which is crucial on I Bleed, where Santiago joins Black in roaring through the image-heavy fallouts. Pixies found this balance on their preceding album, but seem to have ironed out the kinks on Doolittle.
Conflict is the core of this, and the animosity in the studio translates onto the tapes of Doolittle well. Perhaps one of the finer examples of creative differences leading to a compromise benefitting the sound, rather than the specific members. Here Comes Your Man is a defining moment for the band still, and the animosity between Black and Deal is only highlighted further given the bass work being the standout of their hit single. Doolittle landed not only because it offers a major, satisfying counter to what was popular at the time, but also because the doom and gloom, too, is a response. These are not plucked from nowhere, but a read on what is popular. Black is at his very best in these moments, the frenetic style of his delivery finds a consistent instrumental quality on the B-side.
From the Lovering-led La La Love You, seemingly a knock at the jangle pop imagery which had exploded in the UK, to the comedown state of No 13 Baby, Doolittle is an album which provides excess not as a route to freedom but one to carnage. Pixies are a band which works so well in the counter-culture circle that even now, in their established popularity off the back of albums like Doolittle, they feel against the grain of what is expected. There is the real thrill of listening to their first three albums, decades later. They still speak to an urgency needed in society, to a change of worldview or perspective which is brought on by being the antithesis to popularity. This is a turning point for alternative music, and the fact it remains as such is a read on the never-changing times. Doolittle is a powerhouse project.
