The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

The Breeders

[#] Pod (1990)

Sweet sinister sexual screeches.

Reviewed August 6, 2024

Oh, Pod. Where was I when I first heard you? I had to have been 15, in love with my recent discovery of the Pixies in all their howling, mutilated charm—but anyone who's heard Doolittle knows you listen for the siren as much as the screams, and the siren's name is Kim Deal. What a voice, so warm, so unpretentious, one that breaks up when she shouts just like the rest of ours, and yet so somehow dark and ready to tell of such gross things. I put off listening to Last Splash as Pod's bizarre, thumping sonic world and tales of rotten logs, folds of red and steamy air, bad sex and bad TV, opium dens, and threesomes enraptured me, and it's possibly still the crown jewel in Kim Deal's entire catalog.

Steve Albini produced this one, rest his soul, and I fail to come up with a better drum sound or a better mix than Pod's. The drums are ambient, round, absolutely huge, and the pin-quiet mix with tons of air between the notes helps keep the atmosphere delectably tense. Bassist Josephine Wiggs and Slint drummer Britt Walford (who put on a dress for this) make a phenomenally tight rhythm section, crawling through the muddy grass in dark, two minute bursts with only Kim's voice and a withering, whinging violin for adornment. It becomes clear how much she enjoys splitting the difference between sweet pop and black subject matter—see the afterlife depicted on "Fortunately Gone", the sexual alienation of "When I Was a Painter", or the stampeding, Beatle-flattening cover "Happiness is a Warm Gun" for the finest examples Pod has to offer. Simply a must-listen.

Essential:	"Happiness is a Warm Gun", "Fortunately Gone", "Iris"
Quintessential:	"When I Was a Painter"
Non-Essential:	Black Francis' approval
Rating:
Further listening:	Download from The Breeders' Bandcamp