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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Hear 'All Nerve,' From The Breeders' First New Album In 10 Years

The Breeders' first album in 10 years, <em>All Nerve</em>, comes out March 2.
Marisa Gesualdi
/
Courtesy of the artist
The Breeders' first album in 10 years, All Nerve, comes out March 2.
/ Cover art for 'All Nerve,' courtesy of the artist
/
Cover art for 'All Nerve,' courtesy of the artist

The last time bandleader Kim Deal, her sister Kelley Deal, bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson got together to make a record, they recorded The Breeders' 1993 classic Last Splash, a wiry and infectious burst of sly invention and shambling joy. On March 2, at long last, that lineup returns with All Nerve, the first full-length Breeders album with any lineup since 2008.

Given The Breeders' longstanding internal rancor and frequent lineup changes, it's an enormously pleasant surprise to have the band back, especially in such loose and playful form. Last fall's left-field single "Wait In The Car" announced the group's return with a blurted cry of "Good morning!" — followed immediately by two minutes of churning guitars and barely contained cheer. Now, All Nerve's title track picks up where that re-introduction left off: with another two minutes of spit and spirit, this time dispensed via a slow burn that gives way to blasts of jaggedly blown-out, irrepressibly inviting distortion.

All Nerveis out March 2 via4AD.

All Nerve track list:

1. Nervous Mary
2. Wait In The Car
3. All Nerve
4. MetaGoth
5. Spacewoman
6. Walking With The Killer
7. Howl At The Summit
8. Archangel's Thunderbird
9. Dawn: Making An Effort
10. Skinhead #2
11. Blues At The Acropolis

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)