favorite Kim Deal album

flawless discog no bad songs. all nerve 4 me

i agree it's pretty flawless. i don't love pod quite as much but that's more bc of stuff that i'm bringing to it (don't love that era of albini production, came to it later).
pacer is always going to be my favorite. hit after hit, amazing crunchy sound. still not sure why she rerecorded "full on idle" on title tk. it's not awful but nowhere near the amps version.

Seeing her live next month. Can't wait.

It’s still Pacer for me.

oh cool, what an impossible choice.

*brain exploding*

CAN NOT COMPUTE

Not one bad or even meh album.

Special regards for Title TK for getting stuck in my car CD player in summer '02, which meant I soaked it in for months.

thank you for this poll and for making it three weeks, NA. i needed any reason whatsoever to relapse on these records.

before revisit: i intend to vote for title tk. i may talk in greater depth about why, but alfred's anecdote about sheer blunt force repetition contains the crux of it. however i will add: it sounds like kim started to hate the record about halfway through making it. i reckon it ended up with the title it has because finished out of spite is somehow even more esoteric.

Last Slash was one of my favorite albums ever growing up. i fell out of love with it at some point, i think i became convinced that too much of its density is clustered around the intro to Cannonball, that the little sequence was like a short film that contains almost everything in the feature.
i reconnected with it several months ago, and that's wrong. Or maybe it isn't (it is) but even so, i still would want the expanded version of that.
The thing is that the album - the whole album - is like the best summer of my childhood crystallized. The full on standing by the pool, burning hot deck cooled by the water under your feet with a popsicle dripping down your hand, staring into space without a thought in your head. Or falling asleep in the grass in the middle of the afternoon, or riding your bike downhill as fast as you can. I don't think I ever lived this summer except through the album.

There's a couple i haven't heard, the ones i have are great, but none of them have that high chroma.

I have to think about this for a while, but my initial impulse is Last Splash. The textures and production on that album are so rich, there are so many sounds to get lost in. Last Splash has a confidence and swagger that only All Nerve comea close to matching. Having said that, I have a soft spot for the fractured beauty of Title TK and Mountain Battles.

It’s true that Pod is the runt of the litter, which is insane because Pod is SO GOOD.

I need to go back and listen to the new one for a while.

I just wanna get along
I just wanna get along
I just wanna get along

Challops: Pod is my least favorite, though that's like complaining God stationed you in the outermost circle of paradise.

flawless discog no bad songs

Deflatormouse OTM. I loved LS most the first time I heard it, when it was new, a cassette tape in the bedroom of another teenager (a bunch of us listening, all of them people who have disappeared from my life but no great loss tbh).

It’s increasingly rare for me to play it in full but every now and again a song will call out to be played - usually something like “Saints” or “Divine Hammer” and I’m good for a long while.

Greil Marcus, in one of his columns, called Last Splash “a trailer for itself” (or words to that effect) which struck me as very close to the bone.

Title TK I never fully sunk into but get me playing “Off You” I might keep replaying it for like a half hour. Love that fucking song to bits.

Side note: It’s exceedingly surreal to find myself back in the areas where Last Splash and Superunknown got serious airings in ‘93 and ‘94, in other people’s cars, and be jolted with the knowledge that so much time has elapsed, that so many people and feelings and memories have just vanished.

Pod paved the way for a new kind of minimalism in rock for me, with fond memories of the gradual realization over the summer of 1990 that it was better than the Pixies album.

probs Title TK, though Noone Loves You More is insanely brilliant and might be her best work

She's just the absolute best

not my absolute fav but will prob vote for all nerve because it deserves a vote

I won’t vote for it, but the Safari EP is terrific. I’ve always assumed it was a divorce themed release, but she and John Murphy split four years before it came out.

Still, hearing him say “I can’t call home” on “Don’t Call Home” is powerful and stings a little.

And their version of “Sad About Us?” So fine.

Pod/Last Splash/Pacer could stand in for my entire (musical) upbringing. it's all in there

and the rest are all awesome of course

ALL OF THEM

I just wanna get along
I just wanna get along
I just wanna get along

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 19, 2025 11:29 AM (yesterday)

That is a Kelley song fwiw.

flawless discog no bad songs

I know it’s an albums poll but if the four track EPs are there I want to register a protest for the ten tracks of the Solo Series. Cryptic genius. Also maybe her most devastating song, “Likkle More”.

That is a Kelley song fwiw.

― Mrs. Ippei (Steve Shasta),

If you're so special, why aren't you dead?

regardless of favorite album, "regalame esta noche" is kelley deal's best.

voting Pod because wtf

all of the above. what an amazing career. went Pod but honestly could have thrown a dart and been fine with it

(blaring all nerve and patiently anticipating results)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

She was so so so amazing at the Barbican a few weeks back

The Two Kims (Deal and Gordon) will be on John Mulaney’s Netflix show this week.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

pacer with some strength!

Kim killed it in Portland last night at Revolution Hall. I wondered how she would reproduce the cinematic sound of the last album, but she totally pulled it off with horns and strings in her band.

How many people were onstage? Any familiar faces?

Kim + bass, one guitarist, drums, keys, two background vocalists, two horns and two strings. My wife thought Kelley was one of the background vocalists, but I couldn't quite tell.

The Two Kims (Deal and Gordon) will be on John Mulaney’s Netflix show this week.

― Chris L, Tuesday, March 18, 2025 5:54 AM (six days ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFyUV4gwCas

Kelley was on BVs in a live video I saw a few days ago

I voted Title TK but hard to argue with these results

Funny enough a song from Mountain Battles, I record I haven't listened to yrs popped up when I was shuffling through stuff and it really turned my head around

very pleasantly surprised at how many people voted in this (63!) and how diffuse the results were

good poll. the crowd is pleased!

it is truly amazing how universally beloved and respected Kim is - by lots of people, I'm sure, but especially by music nerd/lifers.

every discussion of her i see is a 100% love-fest.

It's funny you say that because the first time I ever heard anyone talk or write about Kim Deal outside of her music was Jim DeRogatis on Sound Opinions, and he wouldn't mention her by name but he made it obvious that he held some kind of grudge against her after a past interview on that very same program, going so far as to make some other mean remarks about her. (IIRC this came up because the Pixies announced their unexpected reunion and DeRogatis had nothing but negative things to say about that.) I didn't know anything about Kim beyond the records so for a while it just made me wary about her in general, but eventually it became obvious DeRogatis was simply an ass - he was pretty much the radio equivalent of a troll back then.

I believe she had some pretty chaotic times in the 90s and 00s and worked hard to dig herself out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some iffy anecdotes from that period. She described herself as a nightmare to work with in one interview I seem to recall.

Kim's absolutely the best as an interviewee, and seems like a 100% solid person. I would accept any opportunity to speak to her, she is incredibly funny, very honest and unguarded, and concerned about expressing herself clearly and being understood, which is always a boon. That DeRogatis might have a grudge against her can only reflect on DeRogatis and not Kim, afaic.

Steven Drozd once said that he was called on to record with the Breeders during their lost years, inbetween Pacer and Title TK. He said he hung around for a little while and left because nothing was getting done and it was so smacked out.

For Drozd to say that really says something.

I'm glad the twins came out on the other side of that.

I believe she had some pretty chaotic times in the 90s and 00s

I saw an incredibly shambling solo gig she did in 2012, long stretches of tuning and gabbing, half-remembering songs, I believe she needed some pointers from the crowd for the chords to "Gigantic", but the thing was, she was so charming and funny, that instead of being a trainwreck, it was somehow even more entertaining and sweet for all the chaos

Also a similar Breeders gig in the Mountain Battles-era that ended with Kim interviewing the front row Donahue-style

Truly a treasure

I interviewed her. She was terrific. Very talkative, all over the place, completely open, as charming as you'd imagine.

She seems like she'd be challenging to work with even when clean/sober. not in a terrible way, but she seems driven, opinionated, willing to pursue perfection even if it means changing direction, etc. I'm sure she's had her moments.