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Pixies - Trompe Le Monde Turns 30
Pixies : Trompe Le Monde Turns 30
23rd September 2021

Turning 30 today, Trompe Le Monde bookended a golden run of Pixies records - a mini-album followed by four albums, released in quick succession - that cemented Pixies as one of the best for a generation.  To celebrate it hitting this landmark, it's being reissued on beautiful, limited marbled green vinyl, coming out tomorrow (September 24) and available to buy now from the 4AD Store.

Order from the 4AD Store here +

Adding to the celebrations is a stunning new lyric video for single 'Planet of Sound' where Michael Speed, a designer who worked with the late-Vaughan Oliver on designing subsequent Pixies records, has brought Vaughan's original sleeve design to life.  Referring back to the original design boards, he's used 3D software to animate the bulls eyes and powder planet elements from the cover image, keeping things as bright as the song it compliments.  You can watch in the player below or from this link.

Rounding the day's celebrations off tonight, Joey from the band will be talking through the album for Tim's Twitter Listening Party at 5.30PM EST / 10.30PM BST. More at www.timstwitterlisteningparty.com.
 


 

Translated from French to mean "fool the world", Trompe Le Monde showed Pixies still restless to push their sound forward.  Recorded between Burbank, Paris, and London, with producer Gil Norton again at the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most playful, with Black Francis's lyrics on UFOs and conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on predecessor Bossanova.

Featuring singles 'Planet of Sound', 'Alec Eiffel', 'Letter to Memphis', and a flawless cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Head On', Trompe Le Monde goes full throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfire 40-minute salvo.  Receiving critical praise at the time and being supported by a huge tour that included playing stadiums with U2, it also proved to be the end of act one for the band, with them taking over a decade before returning to the stage together.

A brilliant record, Trompe Le Monde sounds just as fresh 30 years on with outlets such as Pitchfork concurring, retrospectively scoring it 9.3, they called it "more aggressive than anything in their catalog but also more confident.  They can handle this now, and they do."

The band are currently finishing a tour of the US and have just been confirmed as headliners of next year's End of the Road Festival. All upcoming dates and ticket information can be accessed at www.pixiesmusic.com.