Breeders - Title TK

  by Julia Willis

published: 25 / 5 / 2002

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Review

This album reminds me of a time that should have happened and didn’t. When ‘Pod’ and ‘Last Splash’ were soundtrack to other people’s angst-years, well, I was rather too worried about whether I actually had an opinion on anything than to commit all my neuroses to the care of one band. Luckily I never graduated from the University of Angst and continue my one-woman underground rebellion against the neatly groomed sensibilities, interest-free credit, direct debit, material expectations of the nine to five adult world. This music is as lazy as I ever was and as uncomplicated as I pretended life wasn’t when I was still at an age when I could be forgiven for my attitude. 'Title TK' is a journalist’s term for ‘title-to-come’ – I can identify with that… I’ve been asking for an extension on deadline since the shocking introduction of ‘homework’ into my system aged eleven. Kim Deal and Steve Albini produced the album as minimalist, analogue, lo-fi, ‘anti-rock’. Each song as a result is rendered with a rawness, simplicity and individuality that is devoid of the generic charmlessness that many studio recordings deliver to those listeners that love live music. Have you seen Kim and Kelley Deal on stage? Accompanied by Richard, Mando and Jose from the LA punk band Fear…. they don’t give a f*ck. They don’t want to impress. They and a couple of guys play instruments and have a few songs that Kim wrote. You might like them, but thanks for listening anyway. They don’t dress pretty. They smoke, they drink, they swear and rip the p*ss out of each other. They’re real, sans pretence. This only serves to make Kim’s feminine, soft, melodic voice compelling and endearing in comparison. The distinctive harmonies created by her and her twin sister Kelley haunt the record and contrast well with distinctive, pared-down beats and lazy but driving strumming guitar and bass. The whole record is simplicity itself, and has a sparse demo-like texture that’s totally unaffected by events around it. The opener, ‘Little Fury’ and the single that closes Title TK, ‘The Huffer’, are the beat-ier frame on which a more pensive body is hung. There is also quirky hilarity of ‘Full on Idle’ and almost heartbreaking tonal twists and muted musing on the single ‘Off You’ A lazily rocking bass riff and snare meanwhile underpins the morse interplay of two guitars and a characteristic Deal/Deal vocal harmony on the ‘The She’, which is darker in comparision I do moody, tortured petulance so much better now I really have something to complain about… and this album soundtracks my ‘nu-teen’ disdain for the establishment perfectly because its uncomplicated realness of sentiment is so rare. Listen to this record on your own, because the beauty in its simplicity is that it’s highly personal and contemplative. You fill in your own gaps, you make your own story… and you remain unaffected by popularity....

Track Listing:-

1 Little Fury
2 London Song
3 Off You
4 The She
5 Too Alive
6 Son Of Three
7 Put On A Side
8 Full On Idle
9 Sinister Foxx
10 Forced To Drive
11 T And T
12 Huffer

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