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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Mountain Battles
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: 4AD
Release Date: 08 April 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock
Summary
The fourth album for the rock band formed by Kim Deal of the Pixies was produced by Steve Albini.
Also By This Artist: Title TK
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Lost At Sea
In a career full of perfect miniatures, Mountain Battles might actually be the Deals' best. It's certainly their most even-flowing.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
It is true that many may balk at the lack of outright pop or that some of the songs are too sparse or that Steve Albini’s production is bottom-heavy, muddy, and lo-fi but there’s just too much to love on this album for any of that to get in the way.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
This is Kim Deal’s version of scuffed-up shoegazer rock, albeit with a shit-eating grin shining off the moonlight.
Read Full Review >Magnet
Mountain Battles turns longtime engineer Steve Albini's bare-bones studio work into a virtue and spins Deal's ADD-afflicted worldview into gold. [Summer 2008, p.97]
Boston Globe
Alt-rock guru Steve Albini is back at the helm and once again proves the ideal midwife for the Breeders' fiercely independent vision.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
And, though the album covers a lot of territory--13 songs in 36 minutes!--it doesn't feel scattered; scattered implies no purpose, but Mountain Battles' songs land, eventually, exactly where they need to.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
In many ways, what follows is the perfect distillation of the Breeders' catalog (and Deal's attendant side project, the Amps).
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Mountain Battles is both a joyfully lived-in and boundary-free album.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
Like their three previous records, Mountain Battles is a record to return to again and again, like an old and dear friend who can still somehow surprise you.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Mountain Battles is marginally more polished than "Title TK" but it still sounds as if it was recorded in one take in Steve Albini’s toilet. A good thing, as it turns out. The intimacy of is what makes it precious.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Mountain Battles is a wonderful, trippy record that's full of invention and Deal sister sass.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
With material as good as this, we can bear to do without Pixies for a while yet.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Overall, Mountain Battles shines in its aim to surprise the listener at every turn.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Deal's bass is one of the most comforting sounds in rock, her tender, bruised-violet voice being another, and hearing her again is like meeting a good friend after a long hiatus.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Here are 13 reasons why we don't need another Pixies record. [Apr 2008, p.101]
Spin
The Breeders can still crank out straightforward rock songs, but iy's the creepier stuff that gets under your skin and stays there. [Apr 2008, p.104]
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
The album’s sequencing is impeccable, as the band segues into airy atmospherics for 'Night of Joy' and 'We’re Gonna Rise,' the album’s most tender, melancholy and meditative tracks.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
Such is the balm-like propensity of her singing that the listener experiences it as a physical sensation as much as a sound. Yet as these 13 brief but perfectly formed songs rush by in 35 hectic, blissful minutes, the overall effect is galvanising rather than palliative.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
If "Title TK" was a tentative first step back into the public eye, Mountain Battles finds Kim and Kelley proudly venerating the Breeders' battle-scarred history and bull-headed perseverance.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Mountain Battles gets less right than Pod or Last Splash did, but hits the target more often than Pacer or Title TK. Either way, it's probably a bit better than you expect.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
As it is, it’s just satisfying. It’s ironic, then, that the record comes with such a momentous title, because really, it’s a gentle personal triumph.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Steve Albini (Nirvana, PJ Harvey), among other producers, keeps things raw; indeed, the record's primitive art punk sometimes echoes Nirvana.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Taken as a whole, this endearingly strange collection should force casual-listeners to appreciate the importance of the album as a convoluted, contrary and eternally charismatic art form, which can still be defended by even the most work-shy of songsmiths.
Read Full Review >Filter
Kim and Kelly Deal have delivered their strangest record to date. [Winter 2008, p.91]
Prefix Magazine
It's an interesting mix, but unfortunately, the album is never as much fun to listen to as it probably was for the Deal sisters to make.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Even when the spare, fractured arrangements seem a bit aimless, the girlish harmonies keep on charming. [May 2008, p.126]
NOW Magazine
The end product, however, is an album easy to admire yet tough to love.
Read Full Review >Urb
With the Pixies re-run now seemingly over, it's good to hear the "other Deal" project back in full effect.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
It’s not as nebulous as their last album--and it doesn’t deliver the melodic thrills of Last Splash--but Mountain Battles has personality, spirit, warmth and tenderness in abundance.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
While Deal's music has often been enhanced by its try-anything roughness, here, she sounds like she's just hoping something will stick.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Deal; her sister, Kelley, on guitar; drummer Jose Medeles; and bassist Mando Lopez return from 2002's "Title TK" in a mellow tone.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
The record comes off like punk-rock outtakes for the heavily narcotized.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Despite its evocative title of raw sinewy snarl, Mountain Battles is, sadly, a narcoleptic disappointment. [Spring 2008, p.74]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Michael E. gave it an8:
It´s a very fine work, and it´s interesting that it works so well, because the material is so raw. Nevertheless it creates a unique atmosphere - really stunning! In some of the very moody pieces there is a distant parallel to the the Young Marble Giants.
Steve S gave it a10:
Perfect for whatever mood you're in. The albums raw sound in exactly what I hoped for when I picked this up. I've been a fan since 1990 and have never been disappointed by The Breeders. Track 3 "Night of Joy", Track 5 "German Studies", Track 10 "Here No More" are my favorites.
Christopher S. gave it a6:
Rather lethargic, mildly catchy ("It's the Love," "We're Gonna Rise"). Kim is still cool, though. Looking forward to your next album (2013?).
Connor G. gave it a10:
I should mention, I'm a big fan. Lots of expectations here, but all have been fulfilled. I can jump into this album at different points, depending on mood, and be transported somewhere else by the end of a few songs. The journey is always worth it. Battles is moody without being annoying, oblique but not trying. Grounded, raw, and filled with hooks that seep in after a few listens. It will be the album that marks the year for me.
