release date: Aug. 31, 1993
format: cd (CAD 3014 CD)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Kim Deal & Mark Freegard
label: 4AD Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "New Year" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Cannonball" (5 / 5) - 3. "Invisible Man" - 5. "Roi" - 6. "Do You Love Me Now?" - 7. "Flipside" (live) - 8. "I Just Wanna Get Along" - 10. "Divine Hammer" - 11. "S.O.S." - 13. "Saints"
2nd studio album by The Breeders who at this point consist of Kim Deal on guitar and vocals, her twin sister Kelley Deal on guitar and vocals, Josephine Wiggs on bass, and with Jim MacPherson on drums.
Musically and stylistically, the band here sounds both more uniform but also more experimental than before. Pod was much more of a one-dimensional expression compared to this. Last Splash is like Pixies, Belly, and Breeders in one band. There are strong aggressive outbursts, which pars the strongest energetic outbursts by Pixies, and there are strangely sounding bits and pieces where you wonder what is going on - and then it all falls in to place in melodic harmonies and great chorus lines.
The album primarily harvested critical acclaim, and is so far the only album by The Breeders to sell Platinum (US), Gold (Australia & Canada) and Silver (UK). It reached number #5 on the album charts list in the UK (base of 4AD Records), and the single release of "Cannonball" went to number #2 on the US single charts list (Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks list). In time it has been lauded as one of the most defining albums of the alt. rock scene of the 1990s. A sample of "S.O.S." was used by The Prodigy in their hit single "Firestarter" (1996), and that electronic project also used a sample from "I Just Wanna Get Along" for the track "World's on Fire" released on the album Invaders Must Die (2009).
The album was released five months after Pixies' frontman Frank Black released his solo debut album to much attention. And Last Splash also spawned fine reviews and was greeted as an immediate success but The Breeders never was and never intended to lead a life in the spotlight, and the acclaim seems to have been more of a burden to a side-project with members who just wanted a playground for themselves. Anyway, the band members returned to other musical projects. Kelley Deal got occupied by drug 'related problems' and Kim formed the band The Amps (which included both Kelley Jim MacPherson), however, the band never split but was put on a hiatus.
In 2013, the album was issued as LSXX (Last Splash 20th Anniversary Edition) - a vinyl box set containing 3 full length records and 4 eps, as well as an optical version consisting of 3 discs.
Last Splash is probably one in three albums I played the most in the mid 1990s, and I'm sure my then-neighbours know "New Year" and "Cannonball" 'cause I kinda played them really L O U D.
Highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com, Blender 4 / 5, Spin, Rolling Stone Album Guide 4,5 / 5 stars ]
1993 Favourite releases: 1. Tindersticks Tindersticks - 2. Björk Debut - 3. The Breeders Last Splash
