Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
Pod was released on May 28, 1990 by 4AD in the UK. (In the USA, it was originally released on 4AD/Rough Trade, and then in 1992 by 4AD/Elektra Records.) Although the album did not chart in the U.S., it was a minor hit in the UK, peaking at #22 on the UK Albums Chart.
The album did, nevertheless, receive much acclaim from mainstream critics; The New York Times' Karen Schoemer wrote: "The angular melodies, shattered tempos and screeching dynamics recall elements of each of the women's full-time bands, but Pod has a smart, innovative edge all its own." Heather Phares of Allmusic hailed the album as "a vibrantly creative debut," and praised its "creative songwriting, immediate production...and clever arrangements." Phares compared Pod favorably to the Pixies' Bossanova and the Throwing Muses' Hunkpapa; Deal and Donelly's respective bands' releases at that time. Rolling Stone magazine, in their profile of The Breeders, called the album "hazy and creepily erotic... just what college radio had been waiting for."
The praise, however, was not unequivocal; The Village Voice's Robert Christgau derided the album, calling it an "art project", implying that The Breeders didn't " like a band." In his book The Rough Guide to Rock, Peter Buckley downplays comparisons with the Pixies, suggesting the album is "far too plodding for that." In The A to X of Alternative Music, Steve Taylor says, "Deal's songs are not of the same quality as her Pixies work."
In a 1992 interview with Melody Maker, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named Pod as one of the records that influenced his life: "It’s an epic that will never let you forget your ex-girlfriend." Subsequently, in August 1993, after the release of their second album Last Splash, the Breeders were invited to open for Nirvana at several venues in Europe. In July 1995, in their tenth anniversary issue,Alternative Press ranked Pod number 39 of the "Top 99 of '85-'95", a list of the best albums released during the magazine's years in print. In July 2007, in a chat forum interview, Pod's engineer Steve Albini revealed that he considered the album to be amongst his best works.
In 2003, Pitchfork Media listed the album at #81 on their list of The Top 100 Albums of the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Pod (The Breeders Album)
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of morality ... only by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)