I’m Leaking Pure White Noise

The Breeders “London Song” – This is for Emily. This selection comes from last year’s very underrated Title TK album, which to me, is at least as good as any other album the band has ever produced. To me, “London Song” is the single best song that Kim Deal has ever written, if just for the bridge where she’s singing “I thought I’d know better, I thought I’d knoooooooow…” over this simple, perfect rolling bassline. This is what I wrote about this song (and the Title TK album) on this blog last year:

On the way home, I finally got around to listening to The Breeder’s Title TK in its entirety and in its intended sequence (well, actually I listened to “London Song” twice over, so maybe not). I can understand why some Breeders fans are let down by this record, but I like it. Having never been anything more than a casual fan of Kim Deal, I don’t have any great expectations for her or her bands. As of this writing, I’m fairly convinced that Title TK is the most consistent non-Pixies record she’s ever been involved in creating. Don’t get me wrong – I really like a lot of older Breeders/Amps songs, it’s just that the records have always struck me as terribly uneven. I think that it would be easy for someone to get an impression of unevenness from a casual listen to this new album (I know I did at first), but when listening to the record last night, completely exhausted, it seemed to make a lot more sense.

Every song on the record sounds like it is in a drunken/stoned stupor, some songs having a better composure than others. “London Song” is definitely my favorite song on this album, I can’t help but love how wobbly and dizzy the song feels with it’s awkward stops and starts, it’s sweet melodic refrains, and its confused, incoherant lyrics. “I’m leaking pure white noise.” “There’s something to believe.” “I thought I’d know better.” “Misery’s fun, I’m kissing everyone. I’ve got to hold my tongue.” Most of the lyrics on this album come off as quietly mumbled nonsequitors, the half-formed ideas of someone who is stumbling around after partying way too hard, Andrew WK-style. Like I said, the whole album feels this way, like it’s either sloppy-lampshade-on-head-screaming-“wooooo!” drunk (“Huffer”, “London Song”, “Little Fury” “Full On Idle”), or about to pass out (“Off You”, “Forced To Drive”, “Put On A Side”). It’s not hard to imagine that this is what it feels like to be a Deal sister given their respective biographies. All in all, it’s a good, weird little record; and certainly a lot more interesting than most people are giving it credit for being.