Published on Mar 7, 1999
What is it with the the offspring of great college/alternative
bands in the ’90s? Two bands, Sugar and The Breeders, came out
after their legendary ’80s formations, Husker Du and the Pixies
respetively, broke up. Both release two fully realized albums and
then both flame out.
It could be that these two artists, Bob Mould and Kim Deal, were
never known for being complacent. But it’s unfortunate that what
broke the Breeders apart may have been more to do with drug
problems within the band than something like their creative musical
wells just upped and died.
Last Splash, their last full album, could not have come out
at a better time. As Kurt Cobain was singing praises to the Pixies
and more and more people were getting turned on to college or
alternative music,
Last Splash made its debut. It featured a member of the
Pixies…and a killer first single, “Cannonball,” which led the
album to top the college charts for months.
New listeners may have been put off by the rough edges of the
rest of the album. Piss on them.
Last Splash packed enough abrasive hooks to satisfy punk
purists but it also had elements of tunefullness, such as “Divine
Hammer.” But these songs actually had structure. Other songs, such
as “New Year,” “Mad Lucas” and “Do You Love Me” were not rooted in
your traditional ‘verse-chorus-verse’ style.
The sound of the album reflects the water imagery of the title.
Kim and Kelly Deal’s duling guitars made the album sound like it
was recorded underwater for a couple of sessions and recorded at
the bottom of a drained pool in the other sessions. And to be
honest, I haven’t really bothered to listen to the lyrics. The one
that continues to stick out in my mind is the high school put down,
“If you’re so special/why aren’t you dead?” crack in the song, “I
Just Want to Get Along.”
The Breeders could very well put out two or three more albums
with the quality sheen of
Last Splash. In some ways, you have to admire a group that
decides to call it quits before releasing a couple of dank albums
to fill their wallets. In other cases, it makes you mad that a
group that had this much talent didn’t buckle down and forcefully
iron out their differences and make an album that could have topped
the heights set by
Last Splash.