There is a word that describes what Mountain Battles, the latest album from L.A. rockers The Breeders, has in spades. It is a word most other indie bands want and need to be a part of their music, but can't seem to manage. It is a word that rhymes with "malls."
Mountain Battles is The Breeders' first album since 2002's moderately enjoyable Title TK. And while Title TK tried too hard to regain the frenzied energy of 1993's seminal Last Splash, Mountain Battles feels more like its own album.
The Breeders is made up of Kim Deal of the Pixies, her twin sister Kelly, Jose Medeles and Mando Lopez. It is harder with this latest album to hear the Pixies influence in Ms. Deal's songwriting and bass playing than it has been in any of The Breeders' earlier work.
More energy is being put into the intricacies of drums and guitar here, grinding power replaced with sparse, ethereal playing.
Oddly enough, the most appealing track on the album, "Regaleme Esta Noche," is one that breaks entirely with the rock genre. Deal sings a song in Spanish that "could out-'Blue Bayou'" "
Blue Bayou." A southern waltz with beautiful, intricate finger-picked guitar, this song could not be any more appropriate for spring evenings.
There is an organic feeling to the album that is impossible to ignore. The band is devoted to the "all wave" method of recording: meaning all analog, all live recording, and nothing digital, ever. It's a subtle difference in sound, but the result is music that sounds more alive that most of what is put to page these days.
Kim and Kelly Deal share the same throaty, clarion-clear voice, singing like glass breaking with a melody. It's as if the Cocteau Twins and Corin Tucker of Sleater Kinney were merged in some freak accident. The only problem is that at times clarity is sacrificed for melody. On "Istanbul," for instance, the sense is that there is an important message to the lyrics, but it's impossible to pick out.
Still, The Breeders are, at their essence, purveyors of heavy, thwacking music that reminds listeners of what rock should sound like at this point in history: deep, dirty southern staples from the depression, the sixties pop it begat, and the punk and grunge begat by that. Rock and Roll is a progression, and The Breeders do their best to move forward.
