Pixies’ new studio album The Night the Zombies Came is released today via BMG.
Enigmatic album closer ‘The Vegas Suite’ sees Pixies inspired by the classic 1950s standard ‘Que Sera, Sera’ diving into the world of sci-fi, as frontman and principal songwriter Black Francis describes:
“The closing track of the record is based on the song ‘Que Sera, Sera’, a standard written in the 1950s. We originally did a version of it for a television programme about not zombies but monster sci-fi creatures. So we thought ‘How can we make this fit into this sci-fi monster setting?’ I did not know that this was going to end up on the record. But then when our producer Tom Dalgety went to mix the record, he stuck it on, and it was the perfect closing credits to a record called ‘The Night the Zombies Came’.”
‘The Vegas Suite’ follows Pixies’ own cover version of ‘Que Sera, Sera’, released earlier this year as the AA side to their first single of 2024, ‘You’re So Impatient’.
The Night the Zombies Came is Pixies’ tenth album, if you count their classic 1987 4AD mini LP Come On Pilgrim, and first new music since 2022’s Doggerel LP. The album has seen Pixies praised by MOJO, amongst others, stating “the most thrillingly deathly of bands remains alive”.
The Night The Zombies Came arrives ahead of Pixies’ live return to the UK and Europe. In April and May 2025 the band will perform a 20-date headline tour, including nine UK shows with two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.
Pixies wowed UK fans in August with their mainstage performance at London’s All Points East, described as “raucous” by Rolling Stone UK after their sold out Glasgow Academy show was tipped as “a full-on head rush of classics” by the Scottish Sun and “as relevant in 2024 as they were over 35 years ago” by Glasgow World.
35 years since their ground-breaking Platinum-certified album Doolittle catapulted the band into the UK Top Ten, and 20 years since their celebrated reformation at Coachella, Pixies are deep into their second act, and in the midst of a creative purple patch.
Druidism, apocalyptic shopping malls, mediaeval-themed restaurants, 12th-century poetic form, surf rock, gargoyles, bog people, and the distinctive dry drum sound of 1970s-era Fleetwood Mac are just some of the disparate wonders that inform the 13 new songs.
For the new album recording sessions, the band returned to work with producer Tom Dalgety, who drummer David Lovering refers to as “a fifth Pixie” after producing 2016’s Head Carrier, 2019’s Beneath the Eyrie, and 2022’s Doggerel. Early on in the recording process at Guilford Sound studio in Vermont, the band noticed the new songs were dividing into two camps: what they came to call the “Dust Bowl Songs” – country-tinged, ballad-esque numbers such as ‘Primrose’ and ‘Mercy Me’, and on the other side, the album’s furious punk numbers such as ‘You’re So Impatient’ and ‘Oyster Beds’. Only ‘Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)’ keeps its feet in both camps — reminiscent of early 60s Phil Spector, the band hitting the sweet spot between mushy and abrasive, it’s a track that Black Francis allegedly likened to being chased by a swarm of bees.
The Night the Zombies Came also sees Pixies welcoming new bass player Emma Richardson (Band Of Skulls) to the line up; the first British band member to join the group. There’s also an expanded role for guitarist Joey Santiago. After contributing his first-ever Pixies lyrics on Doggerel, for the new record Santiago wrote the words to ‘Hypnotised’ by completing a complex lyrical riddle of sorts, known as a sestina.
Pixies will head for New Zealand and Australia in November 2024 for stadium gigs with Pearl Jam, closing a monumental year for one of the world’s most influential, revered, and deeply adored bands.
The Night the Zombies Came is available now on black vinyl, CD, digital download, and on streaming platforms. A crystal clear and red smoke LP is available at JB HiFi and independent record shops, as well as a limited edition pearlescent vinyl available from Blood Records. A crystal clear and violet smoke LP plus merchandise bundles are also available from the official Pixies store here.
The Night the Zombies Came Tracklisting
1 Primrose
2 You’re So Impatient
3 Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)
4 Chicken
5 Hypnotised
6 Johnny Good Man
7 Motoroller
8 I Hear You Mary
9 Oyster Beds
10 Mercy Me
11 Ernest Evans
12 Kings of the Prairie
13 The Vegas Suite
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