As its title suggests All Nerve is never a passive listen, it shifts you, touches a nerve, and leaves a timely mark. Ah, The Breeders, an irreverent comfort; a band for the ages.
As vital as any of their previous four LPs ... All Nerve's highlights are myriad and frequent.
All Nerve possesses all of the mysterious tones of Title TK, and the execution is by the same group of musicians that enjoyed mainstream success with the multiple single-spawning Last Splash. One could call it the best of both worlds, but under Kim Deal's guiding vision, it's all one world. This album is another confident step into that world.
The ’90s were cool, but that was then. This is now, and The Breeders are sounding just as vital now (and cool, whatever that might mean) as they did when Last Splash made a splash.
It’s no surprise that All Nerve, the first new Breeders album in a decade, sounds—predictably, gloriously—like The Breeders.
On the whole, All Nerve is a strong, clear-eyed return for Dayton, Ohio’s ’90s alt-rock icons.
Reuniting the lineup behind the band’s opus Last Splash, the band’s new record has blistering highs, tender lows, and a spitfire pace that ensures things stay interesting throughout. It’s a triumph from a band that still has something to prove.
While The Breeders may not be reclaiming their youth on their latest effort, they’re not trying to: they approach All Nerve with the sensibility of a band that embraces how they’ve grown since their early punk days.
All Nerve is less the sound of a band trying to revisit the vitality of its youth, than a collection of musicians who don't appear to have ever lost it.
For an album full of space and silence, it’s remarkably relentless and weighty – maybe not the stuff of arena-packing success after all, but formidable enough that, while it plays, what ifs seem beside the point.
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.
All Nerve shrugs off any burden of a ‘come-back’ and becomes a truly rare thing: a wild, visionary, timeless rock album.
All Nerve won’t please anybody looking for the reckless abandon of old, but surely nobody who ever loved this band will be in that frame of mind. Instead, they’ll be ushering these old favourites in from the cold with warmth and empathy.
All Nerve finds The Breeders sounding more ecstatic and less restrained than anytime since Last Splash originally soaked the alt-rock scene.
The Breeders’ new album features their iconic Last Splash lineup. It is smoothly confident with many moments of bliss, even as the lyrics evoke isolation, frustration, and scuzz.
Caveats aside, All Nerve is a fresh reminder that Kim Deal is still a fount of inspiration and should keep it going, be it with The Breeders or otherwise.
All Nerve is not in the same league as Last Splash, but it is an exhibition of a band with alarmingly strong musical chemistry making relevant music - and enjoying doing so - a quarter of a century on from their most notable landmark.
It's a twisted, swirling record of gorgeous harmony set against catapulting rhythms and just the right balance of body-horror lyricism that stands firmly on its' own.
While the results don't match the highest highs of that '90s classic, they certainly live up the band's legacy of consistency in terms of quality, if not quantity.
The Breeders are pleasing themselves first, and fans second, and to witness such spontaneity still in practice – 28 years on from their debut – makes ‘All Nerve’ worth the wait.
While it may flag a bit in its latter moments though, ‘All Nerve’ still has moments where the magic of this particular, iconic incarnation of The Breeders feels recaptured.
The Breeders is one of its kind, such a historical band has found, somehow, a way to keep their sound fresh and enjoyable for more than three decades. Kim Deal's amazing sense of musicality and youth is mesmerizing and viewed in just a handful of actual talented artists and cultural influences. Loved this record.
Favorite tracks: All Nerve, MetaGoth, and Hawl at the Summit.
To whom is this music supposed to appeal?? Maybe The Breeders should include, I don't know, a hook now and then? Even Sonic Youth came across a melody once in awhile. This music is discordant, and that's fine, but most of the time, these songs don't go anywhere, and there is no discernable reason, from a vocal melody standpoint, to listen to any of this more than once. I'm not sure I would recommend listening to it for the first time either.
What are these people on about? There are certainly more powerful songs elsewhere in the Breeders catalogue, but two separate people are calling this hookless???
Some of these songs hadn't really sunk in for me even after a while, but I relistened to this for the first time in a while today and I would still contend that this is album is solid at the very least. I know that people don't have very high expectations for albums put out by bands with their "classic" lineup for the first ... read more
The Breeders is one of its kind, such a historical band has found, somehow, a way to keep their sound fresh and enjoyable for more than three decades. Kim Deal's amazing sense of musicality and youth is mesmerizing and viewed in just a handful of actual talented artists and cultural influences. Loved this record.
Favorite tracks: All Nerve, MetaGoth, and Hawl at the Summit.
1 | Nervous Mary 2:29 | 78 |
2 | Wait in the Car 2:03 | 88 |
3 | All Nerve 2:11 | 85 |
4 | MetaGoth 3:08 | 85 |
5 | Spacewoman 4:21 | 75 |
6 | Walking With a Killer 3:45 | 90 |
7 | Howl at the Summit 2:57 | 88 |
8 | Archangel's Thunderbird 3:25 | 90 |
9 | Dawn: Making an Effort 3:50 | 90 |
10 | Skinhead #2 2:45 | 83 |
11 | Blues at the Acropolis 2:56 | 85 |
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