The Breeders - All Nerve (2018) [Hi-Res]

The Breeders have always moved to their own rhythms, starting, stopping, and surprising listeners along the way. New music from them only arrives when the time is right, and in All Nerve's case, it was especially right: in 2013, Kim and Kelley Deal reunited with drummer Jim McPherson and bassist Josephine Wiggs to tour as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of their breakthrough album, Last Splash, and the dates went so well that the band went into the studio. At times, All Nerve does hark back to 1993. The way "Nervous Mary" slowly draws listeners into the album before kicking into high gear is a classic Breeders move. "Spacewoman," with its sun-soaked imagery and loud-quiet-loud dynamic shifts, is a power ballad made for the mosh pit, while the tender to roaring "All Nerve" is the kind of plainspoken song about a big, big love that has always been one of Kim Deal's specialties. Then there's "Wait in the Car," one of the band's most irresistible singles. As Deal fails to find the right words and meows while the guitars strut and tumble, it's as brashly charming as "Cannonball" -- and proves the Breeders haven't lost the ability to make their audience wish they could be best friends with them.

However, All Nerve isn't so much a conscious attempt to re-create the past as it is the rekindling of a special chemistry. That chemistry is especially strong when the Breeders try new things. Wiggs gets her first lead vocal on an album track with "MetaGoth," and her unflappable cool gives it a dark, restless post-punk beauty that isn't like anything else in the Breeders' songbook. Meanwhile, "Dawn: Making an Effort" is as vast and hopeful as a sunrise, with an openness that's all the more heartwarming because it's so unexpected. The band even finds creative ways of dealing with the feelings of mortality and history that accompany this kind of reunion on "Walking with a Killer," a deceptively pretty tale of murder in the cornfields, and "Blues at the Acropolis," which superimposes modern junkies and drunks with dead heroes of the past. The decade-long gap between All Nerve and Mountain Battles was the Breeders' longest hiatus yet, but it was time well spent -- this is one of the band's finest blends of sugar and swagger, space and noise. All Nerve lives up to its name: the Breeders' one-of-a-kind toughness and vulnerability are the heart of their music, and that it's still beating strong is cause for celebration. ~ Heather Phares