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The Breeders - Mountain Battles
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It’s 20 years since The Breeders made a (last) splash on the indie scene, when Pixies bassist Kim Deal set about cranking up a side project with Throwing Muse’s Tanya Donnelly that hit paydirt with the Pixies’ split in 1993 and the smash single ‘Cannonball’ – but what’s changed? We have a new – now old – government, boyband mania has come and gone and come again, and the Pixies have returned. So much change, so much the same. The Breeders are no different.
Really no different. Mountain Battles, their fourth album in those 20 years, could have stood in for any of the previous three with its lo-fi analogue production and crisp pop songs. But what do we want? Incessant innovation? A rolling array of bewildering styles? If it ain’t broke…
2002’s Title TK saw bassist Mando Lopez and drummer Jose Medeles join the core of Deal and her twin sister Kelley, and the four continue here, fashioning a short but syrupy sweet record with barely a low bass thrum wasted.
The tone is fuzzy and warm, and even playful on the German-sung, er, ‘German Studies’ and the delicately plucked Spanish language cover ‘Regalame Esta Noche’. High water marks are many – if not exactly varied – with the circular lullaby ‘We’re Gonna Rise’ and the, yes, circular lullaby ‘Night Of Joy’ hitting the spot, along with the scuzzed-up ‘Walk It Off’ and – ahem – scuzzed-up ‘It’s The Love’. The latter revels in the catchiest guitar riff this side of ‘Shiny Happy People’.
So Mountain Battles isn’t studded with surprises. So what? It’s 36 minutes impeccably spent.
Matthew Horton
