Darker With The Day

This morning's episode features an interview with Mac Kennedy from Philadelphia Dark-Age punk band Poison Ruïn who are currently in the midst of their first ever Australian tour. Poison Ruïn's latest release, the EP Confrere, was released in August on Relapse Records and you can catch them live in Brisbane on Saturday 30th November at Moorooka Bowls Club (early show) and The Bearded Lady (late show) or in Namba on Sunday 1st December at Black Box Theatre.

Plus the following Review, featured just prior to A Good Time Pushed by Kim Deal.

Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More (4AD)

Released 22nd November, 2024

Years in the making, Nobody Loves You More is the first solo album by former member of The Pixies and The Amps and current member of The Breeders, Kim Deal. Some of its tracks date back over a decade and have been sporadically performed live, while others have appeared —albeit in a more embryonic form— on a series of 7-inch singles released between 2012-2014. On Nobody Loves You More, however, these tracks are fleshed out, fully realised and have never sounded better. 

Produced with the assistance of a long and varied list of contributors, from Breeders bandmates to members of Savages, these co-conspirators enrich the album’s palette while ensuring it always remain unmistakably Dealian at its core. Sadly, Nobody Loves You More marks Deal’s final collaboration with veteran recording engineer Steve Albini, who passed away in May of this year. Deal and Albini have worked together since the early days of The Pixies and Albini has engineered at least one album by every band Deal has played in.

Arguably the strongest songwriter in The Pixies, the full range of Deal’s skills are on full display across Nobody Loves You More’s eleven songs. Running the gamut from the breezy indie-pop of Coast, through the darkened disco-funk of Crystal Breath to the anthemic Disobedience, Deal demonstrates her mastery of numerous styles and her knack for a hook; all before the listener has to flip the record.

One of the album’s most touching moments is the sentimental yet heartbreaking Are You Mine? written during a period spent caring for her late mother when she was diagnosed with dementia. Opening with the lines, “Are you mine? / Are you my baby?,” the song embodies all the pain and uncertainty of caring for a loved one who no longer recognises you.

Big Ben Beat is a driving, post-punk tune that kicks the second side of the album into gear. Describing the exploits of a pair of delinquent lovers, one of whom, according to the chorus at least, is “… just another asshole.” Side two of Nobody Loves You More packs far more rock and roll punch, without sacrificing the diversity of side one. It ends with the punchy A Good Time Pushed, the last song on the record recorded with Albini and one that rivals many of the better songs in Deal’s already distinguished back-catalogue.

Nobody Loves You More bears all the hallmarks of a labour of love. While it seems almost criminal that we have had to wait so long for a Kim Deal solo record, our patience has been rewarded in spades. Deal has clearly been biding her time, reworking and refining these songs before allowing them out into the world. Nobody Loves You More manages to sound diverse, but feel familiar and it is destined, in time, to be regarded as on par with anything released by her well known —and much loved— other bands.

Nick Stephan