Many artists would bite Kim Deal’s hand off for one iota of her career. In the late ’80s, she co-founded Pixies – and wrote Kurt Cobain’s favourite song (‘Gigantic’) – before masterminding The Breeders towards alt-rock stardom after Pixies’ 1993 split. One triumphant noughties Pixies reunion and exit later, The Breeders have largely served as Deal’s constant, persisting through line-up changes to release five stellar albums; most recently, 2018’s ‘All Nerve’. Earlier this year, they were invited to open for Olivia Rodrigo – much to Deal’s initial surprise, as she noted to The New York Times.
No whistle-stop tour of her life can capture Deal’s magic songwriting sensibilities, which have manifested themselves through multiple projects and generations. Hence, her first solo album ‘Nobody Loves You More’ can’t be dressed up as an attempted reintroduction or bold mission statement. Rather, it’s an organic collection of fragments from the past 14 years, put together with heaps of collaborators and friends – including the late, great Steve Albini, her Breeders bandmates and former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
Gliding towards fresh territory from the get-go, dazzling strings usher in the cinematic title track and opener – which has a splash of Bond theme about it – before a mighty brass interlude confirms arguably the most expansive song Deal’s ever been involved with. The delicate ‘Are You Mine’ immortalises her mother’s loving confusion – while she had Alzheimer’s – in an airy-fairy love song, while the triumphant ‘Disobedience’ sees Deal stand 10 feet tall: “I’m white hot / I’m burning out.”
Deal’s scattered wails on ‘Big Ben Beat’ recall parts of ‘Hot Fuss’ era Brandon Flowers, while the blistering bassline that follows is perhaps the closest family member to The Breeders’ 1993 classic ‘Last Splash’. There’s a similar driving rhythm to the visceral ‘Crystal Breath’, which does get slightly repetitive, despite containing one of the album’s finest metaphors: “Beat by beat I expel your point of view / The heels of my imagination digging into you.”
When Deal first penned ‘Are You Mine’ in 2010, she could hardly have predicted it would appear on a solo record 14 years later. That microcosm is the exact beauty of ‘Nobody Loves You More’, which combines her strengths with her evergreen knack of embracing the moment into a collection that exudes maturity and class. Although the large cast of collaborators has few notable surface-level moments, this is an album that celebrates Deal’s individual brilliance – with a little help from the friends she’s made along the way.
