Trompe le Monde is the fourth studio album by the rock band Pixies, released on September 23, 1991 on 4AD in the United Kingdom and on September 24, 1991, on Elektra Records in the United States. Recorded in Burbank, California, Paris and London, the album was produced by Gil Norton, and was Pixies‘ final studio album before their subsequent break-up two years later.
Trompe le Monde is the last album to feature founding bass guitarist Kim Deal. The album name comes from the title of the first track, Trompe le Monde, a French phrase meaning “Fool the World“. Unlike previous albums, the title of the album comes from the name of a song (rather than a song lyric), and is a play on the French phrase (Trompe l’œil), a painting technique in which the painter fools the viewer into thinking objects presented are real. On some versions of the CD, the title is erroneously printed as Tromp le Monde on the disc itself.
Head On is a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain track. It was released as a single and reached number 6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. U-Mass is a song about the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Black Francis met Joey Santiago before dropping out to form Pixies. In a 2001 interview, Santiago recalled that the original guitar riff was written while they were still enrolled at the school.
Tracklist:
- Trompe le Monde
- Planet of Sound
- Alec Eiffel
- The Sad Punk
- Head On
- U-Mass
- Palace of the Brine
- Letter to Memphis
- Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons
- Space (I Believe In)
- Subbacultcha
- Distance Equals Rate Times Time
- Lovely Day
- Motorway to Roswell
- The Navajo Know
Pixies
Black Francis: vocals, guitar
Kim Deal: bass guitar, vocals
David Lovering: drums
Joey Santiago: lead guitar
Additional musicians
Eric Drew Feldman: keyboards, synthetics
Jef Feldman: tabla, doumbek (“Space (I Believe in)”, “Lovely Day”)
Technical
Gil Norton: producer
Steven Haigler: engineer
Andrew Ballard: assistant engineer
John McDonnell: assistant engineer
Ken Gardner: assistant engineer
Scott Blockland: assistant engineer
Philipe Tousche: assistant engineer
Vaughan Oliver / v23: art direction, design
Chris Bigg: design assistance
Paul McMenamin: design assistance
Simon Larbalestier: photography
Steven Appleby: artwork (rockets)
TPP Ltd. London: typesetting
