Nobody Loves You More, Kim Deal‘s first-ever solo album, has been a lifetime in the making. The trailblazing singer-songwriter, whose recordings with the Pixies and the Breeders drafted blueprints for the Nineties alt-rock explosion, has always released albums at unusual intervals, La Jetée-like snapshots of her state of mind. She’s been the Buzz Bin sexpot (Pixies’ “Gigantic” for sure, and isn’t “Divine Hammer” simply Gen X’s “Tush”?), she’s been the bong in the reggae song (“Cannonball”) and the ever-moving island (Title TK’s “Off You”). Other times, she’d take long breaks to leave you guessing as to what she’s up to. The decade-long break between the Breeders’ 2008 album, Mountain Battles, and most recent LP, 2018’s All Nerve, was filled with leaving the Pixies, touring with the Breeders, and quietly releasing solo seven-inches.
Nobody reveals a new Deal, who on “A Good Time Pushed” sings, “Now is the time for me to get what I want/And when I figure it out, consider it bought.” Here she is at 63, on the precipice of collecting Social Security, still figuring it all out like the rest of us but also still a role model showing that you can keep moving and sound (fairly) sure of yourself while figuring it all out. It’s a self-portrait, a curious Gioconda purposely inchoate to leave listeners wanting and guessing as Deal reveals previously unseen parts of her personality.
She’s a Sinatra-esque crooner on the title track, which contains Johnny Mercer–like lyrics such as “One look at you/I forget why I’m standing here,” strings, bawdy Shirley Bassey-like horns, and even a little Latin percussion. She flirts with calypso on “Coast” (whose vocal melody recalls Blondie’s “Sunday Girl”), straddles the late Fifties nexus between gentle Everly Brothers crooning and weepy Patsy Cline on “Are You Mine?” (whose lyrics quote her mother, suffering from Alzheimer’s, but also read like a romantic love song), and finally catches up with the Nineties’ trip-hop fascination on “Big Ben Beat,” which the album’s only real stylistic outlier to the point that the guitar (unintentionally?) quotes Sugar Ray’s “Fly.” Each track represents a different quadrant of Deal’s life.
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Largely, the songs feel more introspective than Deal’s earlier work, maybe because her songs with the Breeders, the Amps, and Pixies, feel peppier than the music on Nobody. She released sketches of two of Nobody’s songs about a decade ago in her seven-inch series. “Wish I Was” originally came out as an instrumental that recalled Hawaiian slack-key sleepwalks and a little Velvet Underground, and “Are You Mine” was even quieter, like a melancholy lullaby. She just needed time to meditate on the songs.
On the album, which has a “This Is Your Life” list of contributors –Deal recorded variously with engineer Steve Albini, Deal’s twin Kelley, several Breeders (Jim MacPherson, Mando Lopez, Britt Walford), and musicians whom she influenced (ex-Chili Pepper Josh Klinghoffer, Savages’ rhythm section) – the songs are robust and intentional. They’re also some of Deal’s best writing.
When she leans back and relaxes on “Come Running,” an easy, swinging rocker about poetry and magic (“Show me what’s not possible, and I’ll come running,” she sings), and when she takes the time to reflect on her life so far (“Coming around is easy, comin’ down is rough,” she sings on “Wish I Was,” whose full sentiment is “wish I was young”), she sounds peaceful and self-aware in a way unique from her star-making years. The beguiling “Summerland,” written on a ukulele Albini gave her, sounds mesmeric in a way her music neve has previously.
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Looking back, it’s hard to imagine any of Deal’s best known recordings as anything other than solo recordings, since she’s written the bulk of the Breeders’ and the Amps’ discographies. But now without the filters of her bandmates (even if they’re playing on the album), there’s something freer to the music on Nobody Loves You More, which suits Deal well and has made this record worth the wait.
It all comes down to her voice, still trebly, strong, narrow, and instantly recognizable – still the double helix that connects everything here to the past. She sounds refreshingly vulnerable on “Are You Mine?” and even stentorian on the shuffling, frazzled “Disobedience” (“If this is all we are,” she sings gently before hollering, “I’m fucked”) and it perfectly connects each of the songs in all their styles. And even when she’s singing the album’s final lyrics, “We’re having a good time,” in a way that’s not totally convincing on “A Good Time Pushed,” there’s a serenity in her voice that’s not worth questioning. This is Kim Deal now. This is Kim Deal’s life.
