Captain Pasty is an early offering from the former Pixies frontman's forthcoming new album Bluefinger, due out in September and dedicated to Dutch modern artist/musician Herman Brood. On first listen it heralds a return to the best days of the Pixies. Gone are the introspective, country acoustics - which perhaps explains the name reversal, after using Frank Black as his more usual nom de guerre these days.
While this is hardly unwelcome it does, inevitably, mean that it's a step backwards, to post-punk growling and furious guitars which, while he certainly does better than most, he does no better here than he's done countless times before.
As a taster of what's to come, it's both tantalising and infuriating. He's made so many leaps and bounds in the past decade that it would be a shame for him to stop evolving. Except of course that if he did, short, sharp post-punk shocks like this would be a very small price to pay.
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