Last Splash (1993)

Last Splash is the second studio album by American alternative rock band the Breeders, released on August 30, 1993. Originally formed as a side project for Pixies bassist Kim Deal, the Breeders quickly became her primary recording outlet. Last Splash peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and by June 1994, the album had been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments in excess of one million units.

The title of the album is taken from a line in the lyric of its lead single, "Cannonball". The video for "Cannonball" was directed by Spike Jonze and Kim Gordon, and the video for the album's second single "Divine Hammer" was directed by Jonze, Gordon and Richard Kern. A looped guitar sample of "S.O.S." was used by the English electronic music band the Prodigy in their 1996 hit single "Firestarter". A sample from "I Just Wanna Get Along" was used in another track by the Prodigy called "World's on Fire" from the Invaders Must Die album.

In 2003, Pitchfork listed the album at number 64 on their list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1990s. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 293 in their revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (after not including it in the original 2003 list or the 2012 revision). On May 13, 2013, 4AD released LSXX, a deluxe 20th anniversary version of the album, and on September 22, 2023, 4AD released Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition), with additional tracks "Go Man Go" and "Divine Mascis".

Recording

The album was recorded at Coast Recorders in San Francisco, with additional recording at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco and Refraze Recording Studios in Dayton, Ohio. It was mixed at Record Plant in Sausalito, California.

The Breeders recorded demos at Cro-Magnon Studios in Dayton, Ohio before traveling to San Francisco to record the album. Riley Fitzgerald writes in Happy Mag: "Recorded primarily at Coast Recorders, songs were meticulously recorded, scrapped, revised and reworked. A three-week session turned into a grinding four months. Burgeoning hard drug habits were also at play, perhaps contributing to Kim attacking the recording sessions with manic creative energy and relentless perfectionism."

Engineer and co-producer Mark Freegard recalled: "The project became one big edit, but no computer in sight. Kim wouldn’t have it."

Kim Deal was somewhat dissatisfied with the small room and dry sound of Coast Recorders' recording space. She recorded a lot of her vocals in the studio toilet, according to Freegard: "We actually recorded quite a lot of the vocals in this toilet at Coast Recorders in San Francisco. Kim Deal really loved it in there. Anyway, it had a really good sound." Kelley Deal also used the toilet for her lead guitar sound on "Mad Lucas", running it through an Auratone speaker miked up in the toilet.

The rhythm guitar parts were recorded with Kim Deal's Seagull acoustic guitar run through a 100-watt Marshall 900 series amplifier, doubled with a Les Paul 1958 Goldtop played through a Vox amp. Other equipment used included a Gibson hollowbody guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, a Roland JC-120 amplifier, and various Boss distortion and reverb pedals. Kim told Guitar World in 1994: "It almost doesn’t matter what kind of acoustic guitar you use. All that matters is how the graphic EQ and electronics are."

The sessions showed a spirit of experimentation. Kim Deal sang "Cannonball"'s backing vocal through a harmonica microphone. Kelley Deal brought her Kenmore sewing machine to the studio, and spent downtime working on a quilt. Kim told Mojo in 2013: "So I’d listen to her sewing, and I thought, we should mike that up." Kelley's sewing machine was recorded and run through a Marshall amplifier, appearing in the transition from the end of "Divine Hammer" to the start of "S.O.S.". Bassist Josephine Wiggs is credited with playing drums on "Roi", as well as cello. For at least one song, Freegard was tasked with making the vocals sound like a "bad cassette".

Kim Deal commented in 1996: "Usually, I tend to spend more time with the instruments. Last Splash had quite a few instrumentals and quite a few songs where I might say five words." "Roi" and "Roi (reprise)" are mostly instrumental with one sung line, and "Flipside" and "S.O.S." are entirely instrumental.

Composition

Last Splash has been categorized as alternative rock, as well as indie rock, noise pop and "effervescent" pop rock. It is also considered "wildly", "willingly" experimental, sporting art rock textures, "pure", "twisted" pop, and Hawaiian surf music. The latter genre is seen in the "tiki bar twang" of "No Aloha" and the "gonzo" surf rock of instrumental "Flipside". "I Just Wanna Get Along" takes on "spiky" pop-punk, while cover "Drivin' on 9" pulls in acoustic and country sounds.