All Nerve

AlbumMar 02 / 201811 songs, 33m 54s
Alternative Rock
Popular Highly Rated

The Breeders’ music is a ball of little contrasts: beautiful but rough, off-hand but confident, spacey but tactile, lived-in—an unfamiliar object knit from yarn. The group\'s first album with a fully reunited lineup from their breakthrough LP, *Last Splash*, finds them back on their private path, balancing rave-ups (“Nervous Mary,” “Wait in the Car”) with heavy-lidded ballads (“All Nerve,” “Dawn: Making an Effort”) and blasts of noise with girlish harmonies, gently pushing the familiar garage-band template in new directions. As always, their ace remains an ability to elevate naiveté to mysterious, almost supernatural levels—just listen to “Walking With the Killer.”

67

7.1 / 10

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.

B

All Nerve is a strong, clear-eyed return from The Breeders; while Titus Andronicus embraces eclecticism on A Productive Cough; and oppositely, Camp Cope’s sophomore album lacks variety. These, plus Lucy Dacus, DJ Taye, and more in this week’s notable new releases.

8 / 10

Kim and Kelley took their time with this reunion record - the payoff's glorious.

8.7 / 10

Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover your favorite albums and films.

Our take on 'All Nerve,' the return of the Breeders lineup that recorded 1993's alt-rock gem 'Last Splash.'

There are moments where the magic of this iconic incarnation of the band feels recaptured.

Ilana Kaplan takes a look at the best new releases

The Breeders have always moved to their own rhythms, starting, stopping, and surprising listeners along the way.

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

7 / 10

Every decade or so, Kim Deal drops a couple of Breeders records on unsuspecting listeners, only to saunter back to her Midwest home, leaving...

7.0 / 10

Returning with their first album in a decade, and this time boasting the classic Last Splash lineup of Kelley and Kim Deal, Josephine Wiggs, and Jim Macpherson for the first recordings since that 1993 album, The Breeders may be laden with the expectations

8 / 10

Re-unions and reformations tend to be a troubling business. After all, music looks inherently forwards, glances impatiently to the future –

7 / 10

‘All Nerve’ reunites Kim and Kelley Deal with bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson for the first time on record since 1993's ‘Last Splash’.

9 / 10

8.0 / 10

The Breeders 'All Nerve' album review: The Breeders' first album in ten years is a triumphant return to form, one that recaptures the brilliance of the band

Kim Deal’s cult band – having returned to the lineup of their classic Last Splash – deliver an album that blends ancient monuments and crushed beetles into a spectral brew

70 %

The Breeders are back, same as they were, but shoving their way into new territory.

Album Reviews: The Breeders - All Nerve

Kim and Kelly Deal - plus reconciled bandmates - prove gloriously unaffected by time. Album review by Joe Muggs

9 / 10