Additional personnel: Carrie Bradley (violin, background vocals).

Recorded at Coast Recorders and Brilliant Studios, San Francisco, California; Refraze, Dayton, Ohio.

Personnel: Carrie Bradley (vocals); Josephine Wiggs (drums).

Recording information: Brilliant Studios, Sanfrancisco, CA; Coast Recorders, San Francisco, CA; Refraze, Dayton, OH.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Jim MacPherson; Josephine Wiggs; Kelley Deal.

Thanks to good timing and some great singles, the Breeders' second album, Last Splash, turned them into the alternative rock stars that Kim Deal's former band, the Pixies, always seemed on the verge of becoming. Building on Safari's driving, polished sound, Last Splash is half-brilliant singles and half-unfinished, uninspired ideas. When it's good, it's very, very good: "Cannonball"'s instantly catchy collage of bouncy bass, rhythmic stops and starts, and singsong vocals; the sweetly sexy "Divine Hammer;" and swaggering "Saints" are among the Breeders' finest moments, and deserved all of the airplay they received. And the charming country-pop of "Drivin' on 9," "I Just Wanna Get Along"'s spiky punk-pop, and the bittersweet "Invisible Man" proved Last Splash had a bit of depth. But underdeveloped snippets such as "Roi" and "No Aloha" drag down the album's momentum; likewise, the band tries to stretch their range on the rambling, cryptic "Mad Lucas" and "Hag," but neither quite comes together as a full-fledged song. Though instrumentals such as "S.O.S." and "Flipside" showcase the Breeders' chops and some nifty production tricks, they feel like filler; worst of all, Last Splash features an inferior, plodding new version of Safari's soaring "Do You Love Me Now" that emphasizes the album's unevenness. One of the definitive alternative rock albums of the '90s, Last Splash is equally inspired and infuriating; that it was the Breeders' last album of that decade makes it even more frustrating. ~ Heather Phares

Surf's up, but--oooh--what's that dark stuff in the water? Imagine if you can, the spectral spawn of the Ventures, the Ramones, and the Beach Boys suddenly washing up with the high tide, and you get some idea of what to expect from the Breeders, a rogue girl group with a fresh point of view. Hard-edged yet supremely lyrical, the Breeders spend much of LAST SPLASH groping their way through the contradictions of good times in the sun and ambivalence about loss of innocence.

The Breeders' riot-grrrl take on surf punk owes little to the happy naivete of the Ronettes or the Bangles, but catches its spark from a Runaways-through-Bikini Kill fury. On a raveup like "Cannonball," fired by a dancing, jittery bass line and moody, careening power chords, the Breeders evoke girl-group harmonies to suggest romantic surrender and its dark side. Elsewhere songs like "Roi" and "Do You Love Me Now?" (the later song a remix from their last EP) bemoan the loss of romantic expectations, even as the heart quickens with hope on "Divine Hammer." Thanks to LAST SPLASH, you may never hear surf music the same way again.