PIXIES ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, THE NIGHT the ZOMBIES CAME, Listen To New Song “Chicken”
Bobby Caughron 
Today, Pixies announce their brand-new studio album, The Night the Zombies Came, due for release on October 25 via BMG, in time for Halloween. You can pre-order the album HERE.
Thirty-five years since their groundbreaking album Doolittle catapulted the band into the U.K. Top Ten and was certified Platinum in America, and 20 years since their celebrated reformation at Coachella, Pixies are deep into their second act amid a creative purple patch.
The Night the Zombies Came is Pixies’ tenth album if you count their classic 1987 4AD mini-LP Come On Pilgrim and the first new music since 2022’s acclaimed Doggerel LP. Thirteen new songs that find Pixies looking ahead to the most cinematic record of their career.
Songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Black Francis explains, “Fragments that are related and juxtaposed with other fragments in other songs. And in a collection of songs in a so-called LP, you end up making a kind of movie.” Druidism, apocalyptic shopping malls, medieval-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 new songs.
Testament to this kaleidoscopic vista is the new song ‘Chicken.’ Released today, songwriter Black Francis personifies poultry, dealing with decapitation and feeling like an actor in Zombie movies as Joey Santiago’s impulsive lead guitar takes flight. Listen HERE.
The Night the Zombies Came will also include ‘You’re So Impatient,’ the brand-new single with AA-side ‘Que Sera, Sera’ which saw Pixies described as “alt-rock gods” by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music and tipped as “huge new singles” by the U.K.’s NME.
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, balladesque 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 sessions also saw Pixies welcoming new bass player Emma Richardson (Band Of Skulls) to the lineup, the first British band member to join the Pixies. 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.
About The Author
