The Breeders "Last Splash LSXX"

Last year, 4AD put out "LSXX". It contained the "Last Splash" album, a live show, the EP B-sides for all the "Splash" singles, plus the EP that came out after "Pod", "Safari". "Safari" has four tracks, including an early version of "Do You Love Me Now?", and it's the last Breeders recording to feature Tanya Donelly and the first with Kelly Deal playing. I think that since they included "Safari" they might as well have put "Pod" in there too. "Pod" is a great record, full of songs that hold up very well, especially compared to other albums that came out in 1990. It has a couple shitty songs (like "Metal Man") but it doesn't sound dated. But, more importantly, "Pod" is a better album than "Last Splash", which has "Divine Hammer" and the big hit "Cannonball". "Splash" is uneven; it's hard to listen to the whole thing all the way through.

Here's what I would've put together instead:

"New Year"
"Cannonball"
"Divine Hammer"
"Do You Love Me Now?"
"I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You"
"Flipside"
"I Just Wanna Get Along"
"Hag"
"Shocker In Gloomtown"
"Drivin' On 9" (the best song on the album and one of my favorites of the 1990s)

The Breeders didn't make another album until 2002's "Title TK", but I really liked the album that Kim Deal put out as The Amps, "Pacer". "Pacer" had some great songs but the production and recording was shitty. I read a quote from Steve Albini, who worked with Deal on other records but not this one, and he was talking about what a hard time Deal had trying to make "Pacer" and get the sound right, and he said something like, "She spent $100,000 making a record that sounds like it was made for $50".

Anyway, the one time I saw "LSXX" in a store was last summer at Newbury Comics and it was around $35. If I ever buy it it'll have to be used and under $15. Like "Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly", I've got the songs, I'm just interested in the packaging. From what I've seen online it looks like the stuff inside is pretty good.


By the way, one of those pictures- the one that looks like a small notebook- I don't know if that's an actual release or something homemade. I took the sleeve from my cassette and covered a Whitman Sampler mini-box of chocolates. It looks cool and there's a picture of it somewhere on this blog.