Forget everything you know about Kim Deal – but of course, you can’t. How could you? She’s written herself into the DNA of modern music, burrowing, defiant, unmistakable. Still, Nobody Loves You More, her long-awaited solo debut, dares you to try. Across its twelve tracks, Deal teases out entirely new sonic terrain while honouring the weight of her legacy. It’s not about rejecting the past but forging ahead with surprises, warmth and unwavering truth.
This isn’t technically her first solo outing. She self-released a series of stellar vinyl singles in 2013. But this album feels wholly different. It’s an arrival marked by collaboration, loss and release, and a sonic wanderlust shaped co-leading The Breeders on their own genre-defining path. Tracked over the last decade in basements, iconic studios and unexpected locations (a Florida Keys lockdown provided fertile ground), Nobody Loves You More is the sound of an all-timer breaking vast new ground while holding her head high.
The opening title track is as gut-punching as it is sedating. Anchored by Slint and one-time Breeders’ drummer Britt Walford’s deft touch, it swarms with strings and brass, swelling into a bridge that feels impossibly widescreen. A parallel-world Bond theme, it’s equal parts Scott 4 orchestra sweep and tender confession. In under three minutes, it feels deeply, resolutely open.
It’s a curveballing reintroduction that signposts the whole album, not least on highlights like ‘Crystal Breath’. Released earlier this year as the lead single, it immediately felt like a script-flipping moment. Built on a pneumatic beat, searing guitars and vocals awash in reverb, it flaunts a post-pop playfulness that, much like Kim Gordon’s The Collective earlier this year, is straight-up testament to icons ribboning the playbook.
Then there’s ‘Coast’, a sleek burst of calypso rhythms and brass, recorded by Deal’s late close friend Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Inspired by the unlikely yet potent marriage of Jimmy Buffett covers and low self-esteem, the track gleams with Kim’s sister and fellow Breeders’ leader Kelley Deal on board. Hitting like an indie rock ‘A Message to You Rudi’ (sit with it for a moment and enjoy), there’s truly a sense no one else could’ve written it.
For all its broad, jubilant energy, Deal doesn’t flinch from the personal, and it’s here the album truly lands its punches. ‘Are You Mine?’, written about her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, shifts from exquisite lap steel and disembodied vocals to an orchestral reveal that’s both talc-soft and devastating. The closing refrain “I have no time for nothing but love” lingers like a whispered truth. ‘Wish I Was’ is propelled by Deal’s own Mo Tucker-inspired beat. The song delivers pure-cut candour. Its lyrics touch on regret, past addiction, and more (“Coming down is rough”), weaving a universality that resonates deeply at the intersection of memory, grief and love.
Deal’s collaborators help her push at the edges without overshadowing her voice. On ‘Big Ben Beat’, members of Savages (Ayse Hassan and Fay Milton) lend driving energy, creating an industrial bite of bass and drums. The album’s stiller moments, like ‘Summerland’, are no less striking. Written on a ukulele Albini gave her, it summons the heart sting of Pet Sounds’ instrumentalism, all Technicolour splendour and slow-dance spell. It’s a reminder that Deal can, at her best, take something small and make it feel monumental.
A deep feeling of heeding the good times while they last runs throughout, sweeping into sharp focus on what is surely a contender for one of the most heartening album closers in recent memory. ‘A Good Time Pushed’ stands as a poignant farewell to Albini, who died earlier this year. Featuring sister Kelley, Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinley and Jim McPherson, the track swells with finality and gratitude. Its refrain, “We’re having a good time,” feels like an unshakeable mantra – a declaration of not just finding but choosing joy even in the face of unimaginable loss. The liner notes read, “This record would not be possible without the friendship and guidance of Steve Albini,” sealing the album with a sense of quiet reverence and thanks.
From the moment she joined Pixies in January 1986 to her departure in June 2013, and right up to the present day, Kim Deal’s autonomy has felt like a non-negotiable. Her first true solo LP is no exception. Nobody Loves You More shapeshifts ad infinitum without ever alienating. Deal doesn’t ask you to forget what came before; she simply invites you to imagine what comes next. One suspects that might have been her plan all along.
