With their fans having only dreamed about it for years right here, right now the Pixies have finally brought out a new album! Indie Cindy is the band's first full studio album since 1991's Trompe le Monde and has been released on the band's very own independent label, Pixiesmusic.

The 12 cuts on Indie Cindy were produced by Gil Norton, producer of the band's classic Doolittle, Bossanova, and Trompe le Monde albums, and recorded during October 2012 at Rockfield Studios in Wales, UK.

This extraordinary album begins with the thudding musical wrench of ‘What Goes Boom,’ before the somewhat calmer ‘Greens and Blues’ comes forth. The even calmer, guitar lite title track ’Indie Cindy’ is brought forth next, and is a true highlight of the album. And I say album as, man, I would LOVE to actually hear a vinyl version of this on my turntable. [FYI - There is actually a two-LP, deluxe gatefold album, pressed on 180-gram vinyl out there now! It was exclusively made available for Record Store Day 2014!]

Moving on and the spoken-word vibe combined with a distorted guitar intro soon introduces us to ‘Bagboy,’ which is easily one of the most weirdly lyrical on the album (“I can’t feel your buzz, but I can smell your crock of stew.”) The heavy, plodding guitar and bass work of ‘Magdalena 318’ is next, with the slowest track thus far backing it, ’Silver Snail.’ A dark tale, to say the least, it bleeds the screamed/strained mid-section Francis vocals of ‘Blue Eyed Hexe.’ Which, for my money is yet another stand-out cut.

It’s interesting to note that this modern day Pixies line-up is missing one important member. For, just six days into the recording of Indie Cindy, founding bassist Kim Deal decided to leave the band! So, what we have here is Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering and a variety of touring bassists. Which is something they had never done before.

Carrying ever onwards in their very own understated style, we get the poppier vibes of ‘Ring the Bell,’ which gives way to a song that sounds just like Jeff Lynne sans ELO, ‘Another Toe in the Ocean.’ Take away some of the heavier guitar work and it definitely has a Lynne flow, trust me!

‘Andro Queen’ kinda follows along the same lines as its predecessor, whereas ‘Snakes’ takes a musical detour into fazed guitars and echoed backing vocals - the latter courtesy of Jeremy Dubs. The album finally then comes to a close with ‘Jamie Bravo,’ a song that reflects their signature sound to a perfect tee.

Reviewed by: Russell A. Trunk