Imaginary Albums #10: The Breeders + Belly

Like the Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev hybrid that kicked off this abbreviated walk through my imaginary album creations, here's another mash-up of two bands which magically sounds like it could be the unified work of a single act.

I shared this one previously, but briefly: The Breeders started off as a side-project featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies joined by Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. Though both were capable songwriters and alluring vocalists, their first album, 1990's Pod, was helmed almost entirely by Deal. So by 1993, when both women had left their other bands, Donelly struck out on her own to form Belly.

Each of those bands released a record in 1993--The Breeders' Last Splash and Belly's Star--both of which garnered surprising success in the emerging alternative rock scene and generated a few fantastic singles apiece. But what if Deal & Donelly had stuck together for a post-Pod album and actually shared songwriting/singing duties? Last Star (which I've credited to Donelly-Deal Overdrive) is the imaginary result.

And it's pretty great, actually! The respective productions were similar enough that bouncing back and forth between the two records (with a few non-album tracks thrown in) still sounds like a unified album. And both Last Splash & Star, while having some outstanding songs, were (IMHO) imperfect--so distill them to their best tracks, and you end up with one delightfully solid album, as you can hear below. (Unfortunately, the Breeders' excellent cover of Sebadoh's "The Freed Pig," used on my CDR version, doesn't stream, so it's missing from the playlist here.)