page_title: Title TK
section_title: Songs
hierarchical_section_title: Title TK / Music and lyrics / Songs
caption_attribution_description: The Breeders, Kim Deal, Berbati's Pan Portland, OR
context_page_description: Title TK is the third studio album by American alternative rock band the Breeders, released on May 20 and 21, 2002 by 4AD in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States, and on May 10 by P-Vine Records in Japan. The album—whose name means "title to come" in journalistic shorthand—generated three singles: "Off You", "Huffer", and "Son of Three". Title TK reached the top 100 in France, Germany, the UK, and Australia, and number 130 in the US.
  Following multiple changes in personnel after the release of Last Splash, singer and songwriter Kim Deal was the only remaining constant member of the Breeders by 1996. The next year, she returned to the studio in an attempt to record a follow-up album, but her behavior—including drug use and demanding expectations—alienated many of the musicians and engineers with whom she worked.
  In 1999, joined by her sister Kelley, Deal began recording sessions with engineer Steve Albini in Chicago. Fear members Mando Lopez and Richard Presley, and drummer Jose Medeles, joined the line-up. The group continued recording with Albini in 2001.
context_section_description: Title TK begins with "Little Fury", named after a kind of pocketknife sold at truck stops with the word "fury" written along the side of the blade. On the call and response track, the Deal sisters sing over a heavy bassline, a funky drumbeat, and guitar sounds influenced by surf music and grunge. J.R. Moores wrote for Drowned in Sound that "Somebody considers unleashing a guitar solo, yet its notes are few and the vocals kick back in before it has the chance to go anywhere. Is it a solo or a riff? Whatever it is, it flicks its middle finger at other solos and riffs, exposing them as absurd, flamboyant, shallow fripperies. I'm not part of that club, it says." For PopMatters's Matt Cibula, the repeated line "Hold what you've got" is the Deals' reminder to themselves to keep the Breeders intact henceforth.
  On "London Song", Jim Abbott at The Orlando Sentinel said the syncopated guitar performance complements Title TK's "world-weary attitude," just as the sisters' "tough lost years ... [are] obvious from Kim's disconnected delivery on songs about hard times". By contrast, NY Rock's Jeanne Fury noted the track's upbeat, quirky energy. In the Japanese release's liner notes, critic Mia Clarke described the slow ballad "Off You" as having a lackadaisical feel; Pitchfork Media's Will Bryant was struck by the song's creepy quality, and compared it to the mood of the Pink Floyd album The Wall. Rolling Stone's Arion Berger said "Off You" is "as direct and heartbreaking as an eighty-five-year-old blues recording, and Kim, her voice clear and full of hope, can't help sounding like a young woman who's lived ten awful lifetimes."
  "The She", named after a nightclub that the Deals' brother used to visit, has been described as having a funky feel, with a start-and-stop rhythm of bass and drums. Bryant found the track's keyboard part reminiscent of Stereolab's music, while AllMusic's Heather Phares likened the entire song to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". Cibula mentioned that the "creepy/cool ... sound [fits] the characteristic Kim Deal familiar/strange lyrics: 'Sorrow blowin' through the vents / I'm over Houston / You're over the night we met.'" Kim Deal plays every instrument on "Too Alive" and both sisters sing. Moores noted the track's buoyant feel and the steady strumming style of Deal's guitar. To Phares, the song possesses an immediacy as though the listener were there watching the performance in person.
  Bryant identified "Son of Three" as an example of "when the Breeders set out to rock", noting "the chugging guitars and stomping drums." The Breeders re-recorded "Son of Three" in July 2002 for its release as Title TK's third single; this version is faster than the album track, and reflects the speed they were playing the song in concert that year. The lyrics of both "Son of Three" and "The She" suggest extended road trips with unknown outcomes. The album's next song, "Put on a Side", has a distinctive bassline and a cramped, repressive feel. Berger wrote that Kim Deal's "voice grinds sweetly, weariedly, sloppily inside your brain," as she repeats twelve words over the course of the song: "Better I better I stayed up / Better mono, put on a side."
  An earlier version of "Full on Idle", Title TK's eighth track, was released on the Amps' Pacer in 1995. In a 1997 interview, Deal expressed an interest in redoing multiple Amps songs, partially because she did not feel Pacer was well recorded. Bryant opined that both versions of "Full on Idle" sound almost the same, but The Village Voice's Jessica Grose wrote that the Breeders' rendition is noticeably slower. In Cibula's view, this version contains elements of country music, cumbia, and ska. The Guardian's Betty Clarke cited the line "Obey your colorist, bleach it all away" as an example of Title TK's amusing, off-center lyrics. On "Sinister Foxx", Deal repeatedly sings "Has anyone seen the iguana?" She has explained this as being a reference to buying marijuana: "Have you ever bought a bag of weed? You walk in, and the pot dealer's got an empty terrarium ... Every time I go to a pot
caption: The bass part by Mando Lopez (pictured with Kim Deal in 2004) has been noted by some critics as an important element of "Put on a Side".[23][26]
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