Pixies return with anthemic new single Human Crime

Alt-rock icons Pixies have unveiled Human Crime, their first new music in two years.

Driven by raucous, crunchy guitar chords, Human Crime is as anthemic as Pixies have sounded in recent years, and finds Joey Santiago unleashing some classic singalong single-note lead lines in the track’s emotive middle eight.

A digital-exclusive single as opposed to the first taste of a new album, Human Crime was written by frontman Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis) and recorded in Los Angeles. Tom Dalgety produced and mixed the song.

The track is accompanied by a video directed by bassist Paz Lenchantin, which depicts a “nether world of fairies”.

Says Lenchantin, “The storyline is loosely based on an inside joke between Charles and me about going on tour: how we go through a door from our reality state into the altered state of becoming and being a Pixie.”

Pixies will play their first live dates in over two years with a series of warmup gigs in the US this month, before heading to the UK and Europe for a run of festival shows in the summer.

Head to Pixies Music for full dates and tickets.