It's not like the Pixies didn't have tunes, tunes, tunes to burn on Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, it's just that they tended to camouflage them behind a lot of noise and manic caterwauling. 

On 1993's Doolittle -- the beloved Boston quartet's second full-length album -- producer Gil Norton managed to buff enough of the rougher edges off undeniable pop jams like "Here Comes Your Man," "Wave Of Mutilation" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven" for the Pixies to at least casually court open-minded MuchMusic and MTV viewers and a few radio listeners beyond the "college" dial. Maybe not to immediate mainstream success during the band's original seven-year run, no, but there's a reason Doolittle still sells at a steady rate 30 years along. As to the rough edges left behind on Doolittle, everyone from Nirvana to Bob Mould circa Sugar has remade "Debaser" in their own image at some point. And with good reason.

TRACKLISTING:

1. Debaser
2. Tame
3. Wave of Mutilation
4. I Bleed
5. Here Comes Your Man
6. Dead
7. Monkey Gone To Heaven
8. Mr. Grieves
9. Crackity Jones
10. La La Love You
11. No 13 Baby
12. There Goes My Gun
13. Hey
14. Silver
15. Gouge Away