Mountain Battles

2008 studio album by the Breeders

Mountain Battles

Studio album by

the Breeders

Released

April 7, 2008

Recorded

Electrical Audio, Chicago;
Stagg Street Studio, Van Nuys;
Manny's Studio, Los Angeles;
Refraze Recording Studio, Dayton;
as well as basement recordings

Genre

Art punk

Length

36:42

Label

4AD

The Breeders chronology

Title TK
(2002)

Mountain Battles
(2008)

Fate to Fatal (EP)
(2009)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	75/100^[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
Blender	^[3]
Entertainment Weekly	C^[4]
Mojo	^[5]
NME	8/10^[6]
Pitchfork Media	7.5/10^[7]
Q	^[8]
Rolling Stone	^[9]
Spin	^[10]
Under the Radar	5/10^[11]

Mountain Battles is the fourth studio album by American band The Breeders. It was released in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2008, and in the United States on April 8, 2008. The album was gradually recorded in a number of different locales including Refraze Recording Studios in Dayton, Ohio, by engineers including Steve Albini, Erika Larson, Manny Nieto and Ben Mumphrey.

Song development and recording

The Breeders released their previous album, Title TK, in 2002.^[12] The group's line-up then consisted of Kim Deal, her twin sister Kelley Deal, Richard Presley, Mando Lopez, and Jose Medeles;^[13] at the time, the group was based in Los Angeles.^[12]^[14] That year, the Deals began demoing songs for the band's next album,^[12]^[15] including "Regalame Esta Noche" and "No Way".^[15] Meanwhile, the group went on tour in the United States and Europe.^[16] The Deal sisters continued demoing songs the following year.^[12] In 2004, Kim Deal's previous band, Pixies, embarked on a reunion tour,^[16]^[17] and Kelley also traveled with the group.^[18] While on the tour, the sisters worked on "Walk It Off"^[12]^[15]—footage of them going through the song is included on the Pixies' loudQuietloud DVD.^[18] Around this time, Kim and Kelley moved from Los Angeles back to their hometown of Dayton, Ohio,^[14] and continued working on new compositions there,^[19] including "Bang On" and "Night of Joy", which came about in the spring of 2007.^[15] When developing the songs for Mountain Battles, both sisters collaborated on the arrangements.^[18]^[20] Only Kim, who wrote the lyrics, received songwriting credits,^[18] although Kelley was accorded some royalties.^[18]

During the period of 2002 to 2007—concurrently with the Deals' writing and demoing—the Breeders attended sessions with a number of engineers to record the album.^[21] These comprised sessions at Electrical Audio in Chicago with Steve Albini, and recording in Los Angeles and Refraze Recording Studios in Dayton Ohio with engineers including Erika Larsen, Manny Nieto, and Ben Mumphrey.^[22] By this time, Presley had left the group to sell luxury cars,^[21] so the Breeders consisted of the Deal twins, Lopez, and Medeles.^[21]^[22]

Composition

Mountain Battles takes on "primitive" art punk amidst a "raw, sparse" lo-fi sound.^[9]^[23]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kim Deal, except where noted

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Overglazed"		2:15
2.	"Bang On"		2:03
3.	"Night of Joy"		3:26
4.	"We're Gonna Rise"		3:53
5.	"German Studies"		2:16
6.	"Spark"		2:39
7.	"Istanbul"		2:58
8.	"Walk It Off"		2:46
9.	"Regalame Esta Noche"	Roberto Cantoral	2:52
10.	"Here No More"		2:39
11.	"No Way"		2:33
12.	"It's the Love"	The Tasties	2:28
13.	"Mountain Battles"		3:54

The Japanese release contains the following bonus track:^[22]

No.	Title	Length
14.	"German Demonstration"	1:36

Personnel

The Mountain Battles liner notes list the following personnel who helped make the album; the liner notes do not mention which instruments the Deal sisters, Lopez, and Medeles played.^[22]

Musicians

Kim Deal
Kelley Deal
Mando Lopez
Jose Medeles
Steven Medina Hüfsteter – guitar on "Regalame Esta Noche"
Heather Winna – marching cymbals on "Walk It Off"
Todd Mund – background vocals on "German Studies"

Engineering and mastering

Steve Albini – engineering
Erika Larsen – engineering
Manny Nieto – engineering, mastering
Ben Mumphrey – engineering
Steve Rook – mastering

Art design

Vaughan Oliver – art design
Marc Atkins – photography

Charts

Chart (2008)	Position
Belgian Album Chart	63^[24]
French Album Chart	100^[25]
UK Album Chart	46^[26]
US Billboard 200	98^[27]
US Independent Albums	12^[28]

Notes

^ Mountain Battles by the Breeders: Critic Reviews (Metacritic)
^ Phares
^ "The Breeders: Mountain Battles Review". Blender: 77. April 2008.
^ Greenblatt, Leah (4 April 2008). "Mountain Battles". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
^ "Mountain Battles Review". Mojo: 101. April 2008.
^ Elan 2008
^ Berman 2008
^ "Mountain Battles Review". Q: 126. May 2008.
^ ^a ^b Hermes 2008
^ Thomas 2008, p. 104
^ "Mountain Battles Review". Under the Radar: 74. Spring 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Montgomery 2008
^ Title TK liner notes
^ ^a ^b Kelley Deal knits up new recording
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d duBrowa 2008
^ ^a ^b Erlewine
^ Pixies to Reunite for Tour - Official!
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Trucks 2008
^ Bugg 2008
^ Wethington 2008
^ ^a ^b ^c Ganz 2007
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Mountain Battles liner notes
^ Helen Groom. "BBC - Music - Review of The Breeders - Mountain Battles". BBC. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
^ The Breeders: Mountain Battles (Ultratop.be)
^ The Breeders: Mountain Battles (Lescharts.com)
^ Breeders: Albums
^ The Breeders: Top 200 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFThe_Breeders:_Top_200 (help)
^ The Breeders: Independent Albums

References

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"Breeders: Albums". Theofficialcharts.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
"The Breeders: Top 200". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
"The Breeders: Independent Albums". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
"The Breeders: Mountain Battles" (in French). Lescharts.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
"The Breeders: Mountain Battles" (in Dutch). Ultratop.be. Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
duBrowa, Corey (April 7, 2008). "Q&A with the Breeders". Magnet. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
Bugg, Jason (June 11, 2008). "No mountain high enough". Mountain Xpress. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
Elan, Priya (April 11, 2008). "The Breeders: Mountain Battles". NME. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Breeders Biography". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Gadette, Jamie (May 21, 2008). "Rise Again: The Breeders return to basics with Mountain Battles". Salt Lake City Weekly. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Ganz, Carol (December 4, 2007). "Breeders' Long-Awaited "Mountain Battles" Due April '08". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
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Hermes, Will (April 17, 2008). "The Breeders: Mountain Battles". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 19, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
"Kelley Deal knits up new recording". The San Francisco Examiner. April 30, 2008. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Mizell, Larry Jr. (April 3, 2008). "Album Reviews". The Stranger. Archived from the original on January 22, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Montgomery, James (March 31, 2008). "Breeders' Deal Sisters Head Back Up The Mountain … And Reveal Similarities With Britney Spears". MTV. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Mountain Battles (CD booklet). The Breeders. Japan: 4AD. 2008.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
"Mountain Battles by the Breeders: Critic Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
Mulvey, John (January 4, 2008). "The Breeders: "Mountain Battles"". Uncut. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
Phares, Heather. "Mountain Battles Review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 18, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
"Pixies to Reunite for Tour - Official!". NME. February 3, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
Thomas, Lindsey (April 1, 2008). "Strange but True: Inside Kim Deal's eerily inscrutable rock dreams". Spin. Archived from the original on April 12, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
Title TK (CD booklet). The Breeders. Japan: P-Vine Records. 2002.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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