The Breeders - All Nerve
Critic Score
Based on 34 reviews
2018 Ratings: #129 / 890
User Score
Based on 168 ratings
2018 Rank: #567
Liked by 8 people
March 2, 2018 / Release Date
LP / Format
4AD / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Arts Desk
The voice, sound and structures remain utterly distinctive and gloriously alien, a world away from the imitators.
100
Record Collector
They took their sweet time, but that Breeders line-up is back, and has just nonchalantly knocked it out of the park.
90
Drowned in Sound

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.

90
Uncut

As vital as any of their previous four LPs ... All Nerve's highlights are myriad and frequent.

90
God Is in the TV
Sure, it may have been ten years, but it’s another success. It’s a reminder of why The Breeders are so highly rated, and holds its own against their previous albums and EPs. It’s an album you want to play again before it’s even finished, before revisiting their other albums.
90
PopMatters

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.

90
musicOMH

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.

87
Paste

It’s no surprise that All Nerve, the first new Breeders album in a decade, sounds—predictably, gloriously—like The Breeders.

83
A.V. Club

On the whole, All Nerve is a strong, clear-eyed return for Dayton, Ohio’s ’90s alt-rock icons.

80
Northern Transmissions

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.

80
The Independent

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.

80
Classic Rock
Loneliness has rarely felt so uplifting.
80
Mojo
Mimicking the band's whole existence, it flickers between light and shade, its clouds fast-moving, sunshine blotted out before it breaks through.
80
Q Magazine

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.

80
The Guardian

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.

80
Rolling Stone
On the fifth Breeders album, the songs are all cinematic movement – hiding, escaping, screaming in the meadow, running for the exit.
80
AllMusic

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.

80
The Skinny

All Nerve shrugs off any burden of a ‘come-back’ and becomes a truly rare thing: a wild, visionary, timeless rock album.

80
The Line of Best Fit

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.

80
Clash
In never once looking back they’ve re-captured the incessant energy that drove ‘Last Splash’, and given us something to take its place.
75
Consequence of Sound

All Nerve finds The Breeders sounding more ecstatic and less restrained than anytime since Last Splash originally soaked the alt-rock scene.

71
Pitchfork

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.

70
Spectrum Culture
The album reunites the group, but doesn’t dwell in the past. The Breeders mix a variety of styles into this disc while still sounding utterly like the Breeders, a feat that’s as surprising as it is welcome.
70
Tiny Mix Tapes

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.

70
No Ripcord

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.

70
Under the Radar

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.

70
Exclaim!

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.

70
Loud and Quiet

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.

60
DIY

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.

JulianGevarra
80

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.

everythingafter
18

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.

dustymoth
82

It is a bit front loaded but still great

dustymoth
82

It is a bit front loaded but still great

ShonkMusique
85

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

JulianGevarra
80

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.

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Added on: January 9, 2018