Pixies “Trompe le Monde” 1991. 4AD Records. Trompe le Monde was Pixies’ fourth album and their last before their breakup in 1993 (which Black Francis announced on the radio before informing the rest of the band, via phone call and fax). The LP reached #92 in the US and #7 in the UK. Allmusic calls it “essentially Black Francis’ solo debut. It focuses on Francis’ sci-fi fascination and lacks any Kim Deal songs; even her backing vocals are far and few between. Yet the band sounds revitalized on Trompe le Monde, as if it were planned as their last hurrah…Though Trompe le Monde doesn’t sound quite like the Pixies’ other work, Come on Pilgrim’s spooky beginnings, Surfer Rosa’s abrasive assault, Doolittle’s deceptively accessible punk-pop, and Bossanova’s spacy sonics helped make Trompe le Monde a rousing swan song and a precursor to alternative rock’s imminent success.”

Pixies released four singles from the album: “Planet of Sound,” “Alec Eiffel,” “Letter to Memphis” and the excellent cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” (only the last two charted, on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, both at #6). Trompe le Monde includes one of my all-time favorite Pixies songs – “U-Mass,” a blistering raucous punk-caustic rant about higher education (Francis met Joey Santiago at U-Mass Amherst before dropping out to form Pixies. Santiago says the original guitar riff was written while they were still enrolled).