The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Best-vote-2010

The Breeders

 Mountain Battles | 4AD
By MICHAEL BRODEUR  |  April 29, 2008
2.5 2.5 Stars
The_Breeders_inside
A big part of maintaining a lasting, fruitful relationship with the Breeders is acceptance. You’re not going to get too far pining for Josephine Wiggs or Tanya Donnelly or that drummer with the serious tube socks to show up again. By now it’s unrealistic to expect vestigial Pixies characteristics, and it’s downright unfair to demand the same feather-light rasp from Kim Deal’s chimney. In other words, there will be no future Pod, and Last Splash was just that. The uncertainty of sound and spirit that characterized 2002’s Title TK is still palpable — but that’s not to shortchange uncertainty. If anything, this time around, the Breeders sound more comfortable with no prescription (no mean jab intended); when Kim Deal diversifies her portfolio with the Spanish-sung “Regálame Esta Noche,” or the (you guessed it) German-sung “German Studies,” or the ecstatically repetitive opener, “Overglazed,” or the porchy hoedown of “Here No More,” it often amounts to silly, albeit highly satisfying, dabblings. It’s reasonable, given the variety of their back catalogue, to hope that the Breeders never commit to any given motif — but there’s a fine line between a fearless band testing several fresh approaches and a piecemeal album that has you longing for the glories of “Glorious.”
Related: loudQuietloud: A Film About The Pixies, Raw deals, Rock, stop, and bop, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Kim Deal, Tanya Donnelly, THE BREEDERS
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
HTML Prohibited
Add Comment

ARTICLES BY MICHAEL BRODEUR
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS  |  March 17, 2010
    Clayton McIntyre of Box Elders has one of the better "why nothing makes me nervous" stories I've heard.
  •   PHX @ SXSW!  |  March 17, 2010
    Don't be so shocked if the coming week brings with it not just a stretch of balmier weather but also a palpable decrease in the douche point. That's because the vast majority of the music industry has up and JetBlued 2000 miles south to Austin for SXSW (a/k/a South by Southwest).
  •   SPRING CLEARANCE  |  March 09, 2010
    I've seen the best music snobs of my generation destroyed by downloading — instead of savoring full albums the way one might enjoy a vintage claret, they're slamming down random shots of bands with stupid names, passing out, and blanking on what they heard the night before.
  •   PAST PERFECTION  |  March 05, 2010
    Everybody please stop calling Alan Palomo "nostalgic." When I check in with him last Friday, the dude seems far more interested in whatever is on the horizon than whatever's in the past.
  •   QUASI | AMERICAN GONG  |  February 23, 2010
    I don't know what it is about the top left corner of our country that moves its indie-rockers to cuten up their miseries into adorable little creatures (see: Death Cab, Built To Spill, Elliott Smith, and my favorite specimen, Quasi), but it's a trick that just keeps working.

 See all articles by: MICHAEL BRODEUR

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group