Music

Would that more musicians thought like Kim Deal, the funny and frank Breeders linchpin. ‘I don’t think prolificness is equal to quality at all,’ she said recently. ‘I would rather have one song that people actually like than 15 songs that they can barely stand.’ Which might go some way to explaining why this is their first album since 2002’s ‘Title TK’. Other factors are the time-consuming – and insanely lucrative – Pixies reunion tour and Deal’s move back to Dayton, Ohio to look after her mother, who has Alzheimer’s. In anyone’s terms, that’s a lot of recent water under life’s bridge.

Still, even those for whom The Breeders can be reduced to one ‘feisty’ frontwoman, her hard(er)-living twin, Kelley and the lozenge-smooth, alt-pop perfection of ‘Last Splash’ should fall for ‘Mountain Battles’. It’s an oddly lo-fi, strikingly tentative affair, especially considering the muscle and shine that Deal’s gang customarily possess. No one player takes the spotlight, either; in fact, all is subtly underplayed, but the results are by turns sweetly seductive, beguilingly atmospheric and darkly menacing. The aptly titled ‘Overglazed’ is a cross-hatched haze of fuzzy guitars anchored by a flurry of beats, over which Kim repeats, ‘I can feel it.’ History rears up in ‘We’re Gonna Rise’, with its echoes of Pixies and Nirvana, but ‘Istanbul’ is a brilliant reimagining of The Slits and Augustus Pablo, while the title track suggests a new-found interest in cLOUDDEAD and the Constellation label.

Old-skool fans may prefer the Pavement-like skronkathon that is ‘It’s The Love’ or the gnarly, heads-down ‘No Way’, but however your own history aligns with The Breeders’, you should be delighted to have them back.