Audiopile Review: We normally try to avoid reading the official record-company write-up before we start telling you about an album. But we couldn’t help catching a glimpse of the opening gambit on 4AD’s press release for the new Kim Deal album. “WAIT IN THE CAR! Kim’s got *business*.” That should be at least mildly amusing to anyone who remembers ‘Wait in the Car’, lead single from the Breeders’ album ‘All Nerve’. But it’s also a reminder that Kim is still at the height of her powers. Or at least, you know she was in 2018, when ‘All Nerve’ came out. And we can assure you that Kim’s new debut solo album, ‘Nobody Loves You More’ proves that her well of inspiration is a long way from running dry. It was recorded with the late Steve Albini, but don’t expect something stark and minimal in the vein of ‘Title TK’. This is Deal’s lushest recording to date and her most complex since ‘Last Splash’. Given that it’s credited as a solo album, despite various Breeders contributing to its recording, no surprise that this is also her most personal work to date. Covering themes of personal failure and loss, ‘Nobody Loves You More’ packs more straightforwardly emotional punch than anything in KD’s back catalogue. Clearly, she doesn’t need to rely on the patronage of Olivia Rodrigo to stay relevant. Kim Deal is still doing great, urgent work.

Nobody Loves You More is Kim Deal’s debut album, although it’s technically not her first release under her own name – she self-released a 5-part, 10-song 7” vinyl series in 2013, and beyond that, she’s earned her stripes as early as the late 80s with bands Pixies and The Breeders. The long-awaited record’s creation began with its oldest songs, “Are You Mine?” and “Wish I Was,” which were written and originally recorded in 2011 and included in said vinyl series, shortly after Deal concluded Pixies’ ‘Lost Cities Tour’ and relocated to L.A. In the years since, the record took shape in pieces, coming to light with a variety of collaborators, including Breeders past and present (Mando Lopez, Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson, and Britt Walford), as well as new friends like Jack Lawrence (The Greenhorns) and Savages’ Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan. Tracked over the last several years, the record’s last recording was helmed by iconic engineer and Deal’s close friend Steve Albini, tracking “A Good Time Pushed” with Jim and Kelley in November 2022. Sonically versatile and propulsively infectious, the resulting record is a celebration of Deal’s unmatched artistry, nodding not only to her career highlights with celebrated bands across the alternative landscape, but also to her immovable cultural weight