Pixies
“Letter To Memphis”
Trompe le Monde

I realized recently that I tend to have an inexplicable bias toward departure albums. You know, the records that most people consider wrong turns or, at the very least, drastic stylistic changes. I like U2’s ’90s trilogy, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born are two of my favorite albums of all time, and I enjoy most of R.E.M.’s late ’90s material.

A lot of folks don’t like Trompe le Monde. Granted, it lacks a Kim Deal vocal performance, it was practically a Black Francis solo record, and the band was falling apart at the time, but… but I like it. I like its feel. It feels weird, largely because it feels more normal than the other Pixies albums.

I particularly like “Letter To Memphis.” It’s especially Black Francisy, if not necessarily Pixiesish. It has the wistful, “desert highway” feel that I will almost always eat up like lonely, lonely candy. But if that’s still not good enough for you, go listen to “U-Mass,” normal.