I seem to be in the minority of my limited audience in that I absolutely could not stand The Breeders’ big hit from the 90s, “Cannonball.” As such, I never picked up their prior three albums and casually forgot their name since about 1993. However, on April 8
th, I was out and about, stumbled on
Mountain Battles on the store shelf, and found the band name to be so nagging in its familiarity I picked it up on a whim. It took some research before I could make an adequate trip down memory lane. I also seem to be in the minority since I happen to like this album while most of my associates didn’t care for it (one went so far as to say he hated it).
The first thing about any album that grabs anyone unfamiliar with a band is the cover art.
Mountain Battles, being a 4AD release, features art direction and design by Vaughan Oliver/v23, and, if that name and design firm doesn’t immediately conjure images of some of the best album art and art direction ever, then you have a dreadful deficiency of 4AD releases in your personal collection. I was so taken by the art and photography (by Marc Atkins,
panoptika.net) that, when I offered
Mountain Battles for group perusal at a dinner party, Gary Levitt (see
Setting Sun and
Quitzow reviews) asked, “Does it play music too?” Yes, I admit, I couldn’t shut up about how pretty the package was, save for the ridiculous half-size liner notes. It’s like they only gave us half a booklet. But even then, I couldn’t really bash them too much since everything looked so damn nice. I didn’t mind so much that there aren’t printed lyrics in that tiny booklet either.
Gushing almost ceaselessly about the art reveals the greatest flaw of
Mountain Battles: the music is not particularly memorable. To clarify why I like this album when faced with such a potent (and usually eternally damning) criticism, I find the songs to be quite pleasant and enjoyable and nothing wrong or so awful as to warrant a sound trashing. At around 36 minutes, it’s short and buzzes in and out of the ears without making much of an impression. Normally, I’d smash a band into the ground for this, but The Breeders at least entertain when I deign to give it my full attention.
The one aspect that will make it or break it for many listeners is that the album comes off more like a mix tape than a cohesive whole. Point in fact, I’ve heard mixes featuring every artist under the sun (and a few that insist on being mole-people) that are more unified than
Mountain Battles. While I find the extreme variation of style and language (“German Studies” is in German, “Regalame Esta Noche” is in Spanish, I think) to be fascinating, I can’t say that it offers any aid to keeping the listener’s attention. I suppose it could’ve been worse as The Breeders could have just as easily released an album featuring the same song a dozen times. Variation is good and all, but it’s best to maintain to a somewhat narrow range of variation as opposed to being all over the board as
Mountain Battles is.
Another famous name to grace this album is sound engineer Steve Albini. This is another name that you should be familiar with, and, if you aren’t, you should start familiarizing yourself immediately with what he’s done and where he’s been. I mean right now. Go, now. Do it. Seriously. Admitted, he was one of four sound engineers, the other three credited being Erika Larsen, Manny Nieto, and Ben Humphrey, but he’s the one I (and hopefully most of you) immediately recognize and associate with excellent recording practices.
I’m struggling to pop out a recommendation like an obstinate zit, with not much success. While I find the music to be fine and dandy, it’s nothing particularly amazing or Earth-shattering. If you’re the sort of person that likes albums so varied as to not sound like the same band from track to track, then this is your cup of tea. I recommend only picking up
Mountain Battles if you have a gift certificate to burn up, or a coupon to use, or can otherwise get it cheap. But even then, chances are there’s something much more exciting or closer to your liking to pluck off a shelf while you’re at the record store.
The Breeders
website and
myspace4AD's
website and
myspace
I seem to be in the minority of my limited audience in that I absolutely could not stand The Breeders’ big hit from the 90s, “Cannonball.” As such, I never picked up their prior three albums and casually forgot their name since about 1993. However, on April 8th, I was out and about, stumbled on Mountain Battles on the store shelf, and found the band name to be so nagging in its familiarity I picked it up on a whim. It took some research before I could make an adequate trip down memory lane. I also seem to be in the minority since I happen to like this album while most of my associates didn’t care for it (one went so far as to say he hated it).
3 comments:
i'll step in and say i hate it too.
it really starts and ends with pod for me...though the second record has a few choice tracks.
Actually, you were the one that I was referring to in the first paragraph.
oh, because I thought I said I hated it. No, I'm not sure I hate it. I just found it bewilderingly unimpressive, forgettable, and strange. It seemed almost anti-musical, but not in an exciting or intriguing or visceral way.
I am very pleased and surprised to see what I consider to be some of the finest lyrics ever written on your sidebar.
I often recite Darkness on the Edge of Town to myself, like a holy prayer.
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