Pixies' Black Francis on 'The Night the Zombies Came,' 35 years of 'Doolittle' and Steve Albini

NEW YORK (AP) — The undead, Medieval-themed suburban restaurants, the mall. Druidism, decapitated chickens, rebirth. Church, sheep slaughter, science fiction. These are a few, not all, of the topics touched upon on the Pixies' 10th studio album, “The Night the Zombies Came."

A 13-track kaleidoscopic collection of songs — their first with new bassist Emma Richardson — the album veers from folk to punk to psychedelia and back again and in between, never neatly fitting into a particular formula.

In truth, “The Night the Zombies Came” plays out more like a film, each song a small vignette. Frontman and visual artist Black Francis, born Charles Thompson, says that's particularly evident in their slow or midtempo songs — the ones where they value space and reverb — an energetic choice as well as a musical one.

“When you play, like, surf music, but you kind of dress it up in a little bit of a tuxedo or whatever, and you end up coming up with something that's a little more spaghetti Western, right? Or more and you know, Ennio Morricone,” he says. “We’re not very good at any particular genre. We like all of the genres of so-called popular music.”