Time is often seen as a border – the break between young and old, between past and present, between eras of music – 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 2000’s . Some people ignore those boundaries and seem eternal as they just keep doing their thing, like the Rolling Stones. Others move and evolve as time moves and evolves, like Kim Deal. Known for her power playing in the Pixies, the Breeders, the Amps and other high velocity bands, but rarely known only for herself. Well, with the release of her debut solo Nobody Lives You More, she has crossed the border – changed, grown, and more relevant than ever as she turns 63.
She released the first song, “Coast” in July, giving us a look at why she has no borders. Smooth horns, twangy guitars, clearly feminine vocals with an edge, She can tell a story with words as well as notes. In Nobody Lives You More she has given us a multilayered collage of her past and present – and I think her future. Music that defies exact categorization, but is a tempting earworm.
Like “Coast” the entire album is a collage. There is rock and roll, there is lounge pop, electronica, synth music, violins horns, and echoes of punk, and even marching music. Her vocals are a throughline that keeps the album from veering – it is a whole, a gestalt. But it is also something for everyone, and is definitely without borders.
From the sweet violins and seductive vocals of the title song, to the stomping metallic march of “Chrystal Breath”, to the echoing romance of “Wish I Was” she covers ground widely and thoroughly. Each song is a gem, but of a different kind and color – some diamonds, some rubies, some crystal. “Big Ben Beat” recalls her past in the Pixies with distortion and hard-edged vocals pushed by a driving beat – and then veers into dream world and then back to punk safety.
“Disobedience,” also veers across borders, punk-pop, synth echoes, and dissonance. It bleeds into “Bats in the Sky”, more dissonance, but it sets us up for “Summerland” – happy, feel good, but with a mystery echo-edge. “Come Running” and “Good Time Pushed” tell us interior stories, but with hints of punk and metal and a lot of echo.
Nobody Loves You More is borderless, and immediate. With clever writing like the words “I’ve had a hard hard landing and I need to duck and roll out of my life” in “Coast” she is as now in 2024 as she was in the Breeders – terrific, unique and just as much fun.
Patrick O’Heffernan
