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Baker's Dozen

Worlds To Walk Into: Darren Hayman's Favourite Albums
Luke Turner , May 13th, 2020 08:55

As he releases a beautifully reflective album on the fall-out from a broken love, Darren Hayman takes us through 13 favourite albums, from Miles Davis collaborating with John Coltrane via Cliff Richard, the kids from Fame, Liz Phair, Nic Jones, ELO and The Damned.

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The Breeders - Title TK
‘The Last Splash’ and Pod are great, but Kim Deal is so consistent. There is no problematic or lesser period of her work. Mountain Battles, All Nerve and Pacer are all detailed and precise works, as is ‘Title TK’. Kim has such an unlikely musical thought-path when laying out chord progressions. They never go where you expect, but neither do they sound like the obtuse compositions by songwriter’s songwriters or the wilfully madcap. You just spend a while and settle into Kim’s way of hearing things and then everything is as it should be. I love hearing Deal talk about how she makes and plays music. She has got such straightforward and set ideas, which could fool you into thinking she has a simplistic approach, but it's all about focus. She just knows how to make Breeders’ records. Everything is so intentional. There is one synthesiser note on this record, only one, but it’s there for a reason. Kim Deal has been in no other band of note.