The Pixies, ’90s US alternative rock pioneers, back with new member, album

They used to sing about slicing up eyeballs; now they’re carrying severed heads. The Pixies, pioneers of alternative rock, have returned as a full band and with a renewed surrealism.

Head Carrier, released today, is only the sixth studio album by the underground icons who went on hiatus at their height in the early 1990s. Yet the Pixies’ reunion was marred by the departure in 2013 of bassist Kim Deal, who had long had a tense relationship with frontman Black Francis.

On Head Carrier, the Pixies bring back their earlier energy levels – and also find a missing element, a female voice, in the form of Argentine-born bassist Paz Lenchantin, who has formally joined the band after temporarily replacing Deal on tour.

Lenchantin interjects the occasional dulcet vocal line on Head Carrier, balancing the harder-edged Black Francis as the Pixies unleash their signature rapid-fire bursts of surfer rock. “Three dudes and a girl – that has always been our presentation emotionally and we’ve got back to that now,” Black Francis says.

He indirectly acknowledges criticism of the band’s last album, 2014’s Indie Cindy, which came after Deal’s departure and a full decade after the Pixies reunited to tour, raising massive expectations over whether the band still had the same creative spark.

“I stand by it. I think Indie Cindy is a good record. It represents what was happening to the band at the time,” says Francis, who performed as Frank Black during the Pixies’ downtime.

Originally from Boston, the Pixies initially found their strongest following in Britain and continental Europe – where they will start their tour for Head Carrier.