The screaming is terrific. 'In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)' is one enormous effort to shred what remains of those vocal chords. At the end of 'Manta Ray' he howls "Alriight!" with truly demented purpose. The lunatic frenzy and extraordinarily high snarl of Black Francis was a wonderful thing to hear in full flight - something which these scrapings from the edges of the Pixies' recorded career pointedly proves.
The concept of 'Complete B-Sides' is, let's be honest, a pretty suspicious way for 4AD to milk the back catalogue of the legendary Pixies one more time. Fortunately, the depth of great songs written by Francis results in something that feels more like a proper album of still-dynamic psycho-rock than a shoddy cash-in. In his current, more restrained guise of Frank Black, he's written short but sweet sleevenotes, too, evidence (along with the fact he's recently been playing a few Pixies songs live) that he's finally acknowledging the auspicious legacy of his first band.
How the Pixies influenced Nirvana - 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was a virtual homage - and countless indie-rock bands who wanted to play quiet verses and VERY LOUD choruses has been well documented. What 'Complete B-Sides' makes apparent is how tremendously strange and original a band they really were.
There's plenty here, besides the marvellous tunes, that few musicians could ever come close to copying. The strangulated, almost certainly evil falsetto affected by Black Francis on 'Bailey's Walk', for instance, would be morally repellent and physically impossible to most singers. There's that curious mix of surf twang, Mexican border trouble and acoustic punk thrash - all from a band from staunch, respectable Boston - that sets the live version of 'Vamos' included here on fire.
And though many women singers have tried in the past decade, it's impossible to reproduce the malicious joy of Kim Deal's voice on the oceanic riffing of 'Into The White' or the great cover of Neil Young's 'I've Been Waiting For You'.
Nineteen tracks, then: a few alternate versions of album tracks, live cuts, covers, originals and startlingly little crap - though perhaps the world could've lived without another chance to hear drummer Dave Lovering's paean to Debbie Gibson, 'Make Believe'.
Best of all, 'Complete B-Sides' makes clear that the mad power of the Pixies hasn't diminished or dated since Black Francis split the operation at the start of 1993. If any of them could recapture a fraction of this genius again, music would be immeasurably better - and sicker - for it.
