A pounding bass opens the first track. Then a catchy, jangling guitar comes over it. This sounds pleasant enough. Suddenly there's a singer screaming about "slicing up eyeballs" and yelling, "I am un chien" (a dog for those of you who weren't blessed with five and a half years of French.) Welcome to the music of the Pixies.

The track in question, "Debaser," opens Doolittle, the band's second full-length album, released in 1989.

Doolittle is an alternative rock masterpiece, displaying how the Pixies revolutionized their genre of music. Able to shift from breakneck speeds to a mournfully anguished pace and back again and again and again with breathtaking ease,the band showcases formidable performances from all four musicians on the album.

Every song is good and there are plenty of them. Fifteen tracks fly by in just over 38 fascinating minutes.

The most well-known song here is "Here Comes Your Man," and any fan of pop music should listen to it and treasure it. It's the only time the Pixies ever got this close to recording a pure pop song. Even on this song it's apparent what the strength of the band was, the way bassist Kim Deal's background vocals play off of lead singer Black Francis' voice. Her voice adds a haunting quality to the songs that is difficult to describe. It just seems like there's never been another pair of singers that worked like this so well.

The best tracks are the ones on which Deal has the most singing duties. This is particularly true on "I Bleed" and "Silver."

On "I Bleed," Francis and Deal sing in a disjointed semi-simultaneous fashion. Sometimes they're singing at the same time. Sometimes Francis is echoing Deal. Sometimes Deal is echoing Francis. This seems to be an odd way to record vocals but it works astonishingly well.

On "Silver" Deal takes over lead and leaves the listener wondering if there has ever been a creepier vocal ever recorded. "In this land of strangers there are strangers, there are sorrows," she sings slowly.

"Tame" has Francis displaying some of the catchiest screaming ever heard. The song segues from screaming to Francis and Deal moaning back to screaming and it's all over in less than two minutes.

On other tracks Francis takes over and displays his own agonized talent.

"Mr. Grieves" finds lead guitarist Joey Santiago playing a slow, almost reggae-style guitar for about 45 seconds before the song explodes along with Francis' singing into a driving and bouncy rock song.

"Crackity Jones" has the most punk edge of any of the songs here as the Pixies' incredibly capable rhythm section hammers away behind Francis' screamed lyrics.

Drummer David Loverling takes over singing duties on the slower "La La Love You" another highlight on an album full of them. The song features whistling and Lovering singing "All I'm saying pretty baby, la la love you, don't mean maybe," over and over.

When the Pixies picked their name it was because of the definition they found of a pixie, "mischievous, little elf." On Doolittle, the Pixies show much of the same playfulness they used in picking their name. At once they can be slow and beautiful and fast and tormented. In this way it's not hard at all to see how their bipolar style has influenced so much alternative music today.