The nights are hot, the skies are thunderous, a pandemic has torn its way around the world. Somehow it seems the perfect backdrop to revisit Bossanova, the third studio album by Pixies, now out as a limited red vinyl edition with accompanying 16-page booklet to mark 30 years since its release. 

Bossanova is somewhat incongruous among the band’s back catalogue. Yes, it’s got the raw, raucous, boundless energy of earlier albums with lyrics that span time and space and the flat-out weird but it’s also got a lightness and beauty and vocal range not usually associated with lead singer Black Francis. There’s yearning and nostalgia in his voice that somehow resonates more now than at the time of the album’s release in those carefree days of 1990. 

If we’re going to descend into dystopia, this is the soundtrack we want playing in the background. 

Our top five tracks:

Allison

A tribute to jazz and blues pianist Mose Allison, we can’t get enough of this energy.

All Over the World

There is so much going on here in this dreamy, space wander through time travel, space and philosophy.  “All my thoughts/all I am are my thoughts/all my thoughts/I am all what I'm taught”

Velouria

The first single from Bossanova is a beautiful song, weird and kooky and yearning. We could listen to this all day and still never know how lemur skin reflects the sea.

Rock Music

A wall of primal noise. If 2020 was a tune, it would be this.

Havalina

The last track on the album. It captures a single moment of time in a wave of nostalgia, the vocals so airy and haunting. “Walking in the breeze/On the plains of old Sedona/Arizona/Among the trees”

Can we go there now?

To celebrate Bossanova hitting its third decade, 4AD are releasing a limited red vinyl edition with the original 16-page booklet, previously only available with the initial UK LP pressing, reinserted.