Last Splash album cover
Last Splash

The Breeders

1993
4AD

“Cannonball” (with its wobbly guitar line hook) caught on big, but that lead single only scratched the surface of the Breeders’ sophomore album. Distortion, crunchy guitar and pop-punk flourishes define Last Splash tracks like “Divine Hammer” and “Roi” (a largely instrumental rocker so badass, singer-guitarist Kim Deal and co. brought it back at the end for a reprise). Where shoegaze ballads are concerned, “Mad Lucas” and “Do You Love Me Now” are masterclasses in how it’s done. In an era of My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana classics, the Breeders’ Last Splash stood tall.

Miles Marshall Lewis

The Breeders followed Pod and the Safari EP with a slightly rejigged lineup and an absolute monster of a track, the near era-defining “Cannonball,” a song which felt like a band playing a perfect collage of samples that was never not addictively catchy, chopping, pausing and blasting away over Josephine Hooks’s iconic bass parts. Kim and Kelley Deal stepped to the fore with vocals and guitars in sharp command, and the sheer amount of keepers simply amazes: “Divine Hammer,” “I Just Want To Get Along,” “Saints,” “No Aloha,” a cornucopia of sonic delights.

Ned Raggett

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