Title TK

by

The Breeders

Edit

The new album Title TK may be a new direction for the Breeders, hardly avoidable with an almost completely new band, but the song quality and brilliant pop ingenuity hasn't lessened a bit. In fact, though deeply sincere, the Breeders sound quite content and comfortable in their new setting casting an air of cynicism or mellowness in their knowledge that this is not merely a last splash followup for everyone who loved cannonball. While the Breeders previous work is great in its own right, this album really proves that they are a devoted band and not merely a one trick pony that is related to the Pixies, such as other popular band offshoots (ie The Foo Fighters). Furthermore, the basement, sub studio production really aids the once crisply mixed breeders using the biting guitars, solid rythm section, and dissonant but sweet vocals to propel the songs forward as appossed to churning production. The lack of studio sheen also allows for the songs to truly cast their own mood and revel in the sincere subtleties and human imperfections created by the Deal sisters. Although every song is good both within the album's context and on its own, some real highlights include the guitar frieght train attack of Son of Three, Kim Deal's snarl on Full on Idle, the beautifully atonal Too Alive, and the deeply emotional and touching Off You. Not only is this a great album with every track as good as the last, but this is a CD from a band that hasn't even existed since the mid 90s, and when overrated ripoffs like the strokes or weezer can't get true rough pop right, it's nice to see the Breeders come back and so effortlessly put them back in their places.

...Unfortunately, this is a pretty paltry record, nine years in the making---yes, nine years, I said. Such an observation will likely spark a quality versus quantity debate, but Title TK has neither; in its short running time of about 35 minutes, the Breeders cover an Amps song needlessly---the version is not much different at all from the Amps, except it sounds more watered-down---and finally put down songs that have been recorded before and have been lingering around for years (Climbing the Sun). People are saying they like the clumsiness and sparseness of this record, but instead of believing this intentional, I think it's the result of a massive writer's block that has kept the Breeders silent for almost a decade. Deal's excuse was that she was striving for the "perfect sound," shorn of studio gimmickry, an ageless, no-frills rock sound, but I don't know if they even achieved this. The production is dry and a little lifeless, and the songs sound---well, almost stillborn. Of course there are moments that redeem some parts of the record---this is the Breeders, after all---but, overall, this record will be remembered as a curio in their discography. Hopefully, it's not going to be remembered as "The Last Gasp" too, because I like the Deal sisters as people---they're very friendly and approachable in person---and I do think they have much more talent than this record would lead most to believe.