The Breeders | Title TK

Kim Deal is forever as American as French's mustard. The sound she and her twin sister, Kelly, make together is a kind of drug. Like the Rolling Stone's Exile on Main Street, the Breeders are a portable party.

1993's The Last Splash was quite possibly the best rock-'n'-roll record of the nineties. On TITLE TK, which has taken many years (six?) to complete, their intoxicating/ intoxicated effect remains pretty much intact. Frankly, not all of the material on this record is up to par, but the thing they do is so potent that the very best selections here will make the album, if not amazing, at least somewhat worth the long wait. I'd pick "Off You." It's an odd track (with nothing but two basses, vocal, and guitar) and owes a lot to pretty Velvet Underground songs like "Pale Blue Eyes," "Femme Fatale," and "I'll Be Your Mirror." Still, its mood is its own and the weird synthesizer interruption near the beginning is hilarious. (I guess the picture of Kim with cigarette and upright bass from a few years ago was from the initial session for this song.) I'd also pick "Huffer." This is the obvious single and so, of course, appears last as track 12! It's as close as they can get (or care to get) to the million-seller style of The Last Splash. That CD will probably indeed turn out to be their last big splash; nevertheless, on its best tracks, TITLE TK is still "The Breeders."

Originally posted to SteveForbert.com in September 2002.