Mountain Battles (4AD): A-
After a six-year break, ex-Pixie Kim Deal and twin sister Kelley are crashing indie rock’s civilized party with their inebriated, disheveled fourth album. Unlike today’s toothless indie kids of the Northwest - Shins, Decemberists, Death Cab - the Breeders have bite. In fact they’re almost all bite. The one straight song, “Walk it Off,” is buried among prickly, Pixie-ish noise collages that occasionally resemble pop (“German Studies”) and occasionally resemble metaphysical dub chants (“Istanbul”). Not really for “Cannonball” fans, but “Doolittle” freaks will dig it. Download: “Istanbul.”
