The Breeders

Last Splash (4AD/Elektra)
by Carolyn Gaines

At long, long last, The Breeders have lashed out with another explosive album. If Kim Deal was in any kind of creative rut after the Pixies ordeal, she has definitely overcome it with her pet, The Breeders latest, Last Splash. In late ’89, their first album, POD, was released by the same label, 4AD, on a very small scale. POD was a good album, though a bit Go-Gos-esque. The four-odd years between projects gave The Breeders a much needed chance to mature musically.

In a new line-up, The Breeders are Kim Deal on vocals and guitar, Kelly Deal on back up vocals and guitar, Josephine Wiggs on bass, and Jim MacPherson on drums. I’ve seen them in concert and they look like a bunch of plain Jane, clean cut, acrylic sweater-wearing, everyday Joes. Their latest platter serves, however, music far from ordinary.

Last Splash is a collection of fifteen songs, no two sounding alike. Each song has Deal’s ethereal vocals and a heavy, bassy, bottom. It’s thick on the bottom, dissipating into airy, trance-like waves on top. Lots of distorted noise and a solid percussion track round it out. The songs are different in that each one is taken from a different approach. That is to say, novelty noises randomly thrown in. Seriously, I know I heard some Ewoks on the second track (yes, those furry, short things in Return of the Jedi). A great, funky wah-wah nicely contrasts with industrial metal clashes. Even what seems to be a pointed barb at the Pixies, a tune called “I Just Want to Get Along.” Moody songs at once breaking into abrasive bridges only to ease back to Deal’s pouting choruses.

The Breeders play as a whole, nice and tight and neat. They sound as if they’re having great fun. I’m sure that Last Splash won’t be the Breeders last album.