The Depths · All albums

Surfer Rosa

Pixies · 1988

• Scores: Noise 3, Unease 2, Complexity 1 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock, Noise Rock
• Mood: wild, jagged, playful
• Sound: loud-quiet dynamics, screamed vocals, raw dry recording, short songs, surf-tinged guitar, abrupt shifts

Surfer Rosa is the Pixies' first full album, recorded in November and December 1987 at Q Division in Somerville, Massachusetts, with Steve Albini producing and engineering. Albini described the live room as boomy, with strong low-end resonance suited to drums, and used a PZM boundary microphone on the wall for room sound. Large guitar amplifiers were isolated in a tiled bathroom, and Kim Deal's vocals on "Where Is My Mind?" and "Gigantic" were recorded in a bathroom for a roomier echo. 4AD released it on 21 March 1988, and Kurt Cobain later hired Albini to produce In Utero.

Track list

1. Bone Machine (3:02)
2. Break My Body (2:04)
3. Something Against You (1:47)
4. Broken Face (1:29)
5. Gigantic (3:54)
6. River Euphrates (2:31)
7. Where Is My Mind? (3:53)
8. Cactus (2:15)
9. Tony's Theme (1:51)
10. Oh My Golly! (2:32)
11. Vamos (4:21)
12. I'm Amazed (1:41)
13. Brick Is Red (2:00)