The Night The Zombies Came

...d on their tradition of sharply drawn weirdness in a gentler vein that felt true to who they were three decades after forming. It's a mood they continue on The Night the Zombies Came, a set of songs spooky and surreal enough to live up to its title. As on their previous two albums, Pixies cleverly remake classic pop, country, and folk in their own image; on the early highlight "Primrose," they pair bucolic strumming with an encroaching "darkness over the land." By uncovering shadowy and strange doings in unlikely places, Charles Thompson delivers some of his most engaging storytelling in some time. "You're So Impatient"'s surging punk spins a yarn about medieval restaurants and other suburban dystopias, while "Johnny Good Man" offers a Twilight Zone-worthy tale of a gunslinger reborn in a cornfield. The sophisticated tempo shifts on songs such as "Hypnotised" heighten the album's playful mood, but every now and then, unimaginative production and arrangement choices threaten to snuff out Zombies' spark. On "I Hear You Mary," an '80s hard rock sheen steamrolls over its imagery of runaway gargoyles and daffodils blooming among tombs. Fortunately, the overly slick sonics don't dampen Joey Santiago's solos, which remain the soul of the band's music. His needling playing gives an extra kick to "Oyster Beds"'s cryptic, shouty, quintessentially Pixies punk and to "Motoroller," a barreling meditation on mortality that makes the most of new bassist Emma Richardson's harmonies. Considering that Richardson added her parts after the band recorded most of the album, she fits in remarkably well, going toe to toe with Thompson on the X-ish stomp of "Ernest Evans" and chiming in on "Kings of the Prairie," a fine example of the sweetness that's been more apparent in Pixies' later years. Nevertheless, The Night the Zombies Came is at its best when the band leans into the drama that has always made them stand out from the crowd. "Chicken" is one such moment, a sidewinding mood piece that swings between pride and desperation as wildly as Santiago's twanging, squalling fretwork. However, the album's brightest gem is "Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)." The tale of a disappearing man and a woman who's equal parts femme fatale and final girl, it's cloaked in glorious Wall of Sound production that makes it a queasily thrilling stunner. Songs like these uphold Pixies' brash, eccentric, oddly moving legacy brilliantly, and as a whole, The Night the Zombies Came ranks among their finest post-reunion music. ~ Heather Phares