Indie Cindy is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Pixies which was released on April 19 2014, it was the band's first album since 1991's Trompe le Monde (1991) and the first Pixies album not to feature bass guitar player Kim Deal.[2] Instead, bass guitar duties on the album are handled by Simon "Ding" Archer, a former member of the British post-punk band The Fall.[3]
The album combines all the songs from the band's 2013–14 extended play releases—EP1, EP2, and EP3—which were recorded and produced in 2012 by Gil Norton, who produced the band's previous albums Doolittle (1989),Bossanova (1990), and Trompe le Monde.[4]
Limited numbers of vinyl copies of the album were released on Record Store Day 2014 (double album but pressed at 45 rpm), 10 days prior to the album's full release. These copies came with a single-sided 7" single of "Women of War".[1][5] The album was released in North America on April 29, 2014 as a digital download, digipak CD and 2LP vinyl as well as a deluxe edition on CD or vinyl which included a live CD and a 40-page hardback book.[6]
Commercial performance
The album peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard 200, making it the band's most successful album on that chart. In 2016 it was awarded a gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 75,000 copies throughout Europe.[7] As of 2015, sales in the United States have exceeded 34,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[8]
Critical reception
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At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Indie Cindy received an average score of 62 based on 32 reviews; this indicates "generally favorable reviews".[10] Many critics dismissed the album as they believed it was more predictable then their earlier material, with many describing it as a solo album by singer Black Francis, due to the absence of former bassist Kim Deal. Jamie Atkins of Record Collector felt it had a "lack of personality" which was "most strikingly felt in Kim Deal’s absence."[21], while Fact said it was "comfortingly familiar, consistent and enjoyable, as well as totally uninspired" and that it "plays just like one of Black’s solo efforts, but with better session players: good, yes, but never great."[22]
Chris Todd of The Line of Best Fit felt that "[a]ll the components are there, Joey Santiago’s guitar work is still impressive, Lovering’s drumming is still vigorous, but the problem is Black Francis himself. The compelling songwriting that completed Pixies is no longer there."[23] Phil Hebblethwaite of NME gave the album a positive review, while noting Deal's departure causing some songs to resemble Black Francis' solo work, he also believed "[h]er departure let Black Francis, guitarist Joey Santiago, drummer David Lovering and stand-in bassist Simon ‘Ding’ Archer loose, and, at its best, like on ‘Bagboy’, ‘Indie Cindy’ is free-sounding, adventurous and explosive."[24]
Stephen M. Deusner of Paste was dismissive of the album, saying "Indie Cindy represents either an act of masochistic bravado, a display of stark determination, or—and this is the worst option—an act of blindered ignorance" and felt "[w]hat makes Indie Cindy so egregious, so much worse than a simply bad album, is how much better it could have been."[25] Helen Brown of The Telegraph noted "[t]he result is not bad: though you miss the unpredictable blasts of raw hellfire from the cult classic Surfer Rosa era, the band find some gritty, grindy melodies in the bigger, slicker vein of 1991’s patchy Trompe Le Monde."[26]
Track listing
All songs written by Black Francis, except where noted.
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