ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

The Breeders

[#] Title TK (2002)

Reviewed October 20, 2024

[come up with a catchy summary here]

After the underrated Pacer saw Kim Deal experimenting with converting Last Splash's warm drone into a sloppy, druggy lo-fi smog, Title TK, by choice or by its bizarre recording history, finds her embracing oddity in a more traditional context. Like the name suggests, Title TK is minimal and unfinished by design. Lyrics trail off and get flubbed. Strange sounds, like the infamous synthesizer burp on the otherwise sad, touching "Off You", pop out of nowhere with no context and no reappearances. "Cammy, why would I want to listen to a weird, unfinished album?" Stick with me here, because Title TK's strange, punky, insidious, iguana-hunting charms can't be denied that easily.

Although she's down two Breeders (a later rendition of the band Fear backs her on most tracks), it's Kim's presence, years of drugs later but in fine form, that makes Title TK worth its salt. Her lyrics are filled with odd poetry, in-jokes about pocket knives and beer class and strange observations about whippits, and it's a trip to hear her and Kelley harmonize and duet with their not-quite-the-same identical twin voices. She also just plain brings great songs, like the jerky stop-start rhythms of "London Song", the aforementioned achy, overdriven ballad "Off You", the creepy drone of "The She", and the barreling "Huffer". No doubt this album's embrace of fuckups-as-aesthetic will frustrate some, but the more enlightened of us know--it's the warts that make it interesting.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"London Song", "Off You", "Put on a Side"	"Huffer"	"Forced to Drive"
Download from The Breeders' Bandcamp

NOFI | LOFI