Maps of Music

Beneath the Eyrie (2019)

Where the lyrics of Beneath the Eyrie take you, and where it was really made.

The title comes from an eagle's nest found behind the converted church where the album was recorded.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (2019)

Recording site Dreamland Recording Studios — The album was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a remote converted church in upstate New York. The eagle's nest that gave the album its title was found at the back of this church. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Beneath the Eyrie: seventh studio album by American alternative rock band Pixies
• Released 13 September 2019 by BMG/Infectious
• Lead single On Graveyard Hill came out 3 June 2019; second single Catfish Kate followed on 6 August
• Produced by Tom Dalgety

Background

• The band were influenced by their Gothic surroundings during the writing and recording process
• Black Francis said he wanted to intermingle with the spirit world, life and death, and a more surreal landscape
• Dalgety had worked with the band before, on the 2016 album Head Carrier
• The title was inspired by an eagle's nest found at the back of the converted church

Recording

• Recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a remote converted church in upstate New York
• Mixed at Psalm Studio in Wiltshire

Cover

• Designed by Vaughan Oliver, who had designed all Pixies album artwork since Come On Pilgrim in 1987
• Beneath the Eyrie was Oliver's last collaboration with the band before his death in December 2019

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986.
• Original lineup: Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals), David Lovering (drums).
• Named after a word Santiago picked randomly from a dictionary.

Members

• Francis is the primary songwriter; his surreal lyrics cover extraterrestrials, incest and biblical violence.
• Deal left in 2012; Kim Shattuck and then Paz Lenchantin followed; Lenchantin became a full member in 2016.
• In 2024 Lenchantin was replaced by Emma Richardson, formerly of Band of Skulls.

Career

• Debut mini-LP Come On Pilgrim (1987), followed by Surfer Rosa (1988), Doolittle (1989), Bossanova (1990) and Trompe le Monde (1991).
• Disbanded in 1993 after modest US success, but gained more popularity in the UK and Europe.
• Reunited in 2004 with sold-out world tours; released The Night the Zombies Came in 2024.
• Known for extreme loud-quiet-loud dynamics blending surf rock and punk rock; influenced Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer and others.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: generally favorable reviews, weighted average score of 70 out of 100 from 21 critic scores
• Many critics considered it the band's best album since reforming in 2004
• Most critics agreed it would not win over fans of the band's earlier work
• Consequence of Sound: riffs and melodies that neither dip much in quality nor come close to the band's past heights
• Many critics praised the move toward more pop-inspired, mellow tracks
• PopMatters: a portrait of the band's musical progression and an arresting glimpse of the group in this contemporary moment
• Pitchfork: some songs sound like possible B-sides to the third album Bossanova
• The Observer, in a negative review: better than many bands the Pixies inspired, but not terribly good
• AllMusic (Heather Phares): spookier, more fun, looser and more cohesive than the two previous albums, and the best Pixies 2.0 album to date
• Libération (Christophe Conte, via French Wikipedia): the band bring out big means, cinemascope and western guitars, pleasing nostalgic listeners

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title came from an eagle's nest found at the back of the converted church where the band recorded.
• The band performed Catfish Kate on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on 5 September 2019.
• It's a Pixies Podcast, a 12-episode series hosted by Tony Fletcher, began on 27 June and detailed the recording of each song.
• The album was to be promoted with a world tour across Europe, North America and Australasia.
• Australasian shows were to feature Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa in full, but these were largely cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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