The Breeders – “Nervous Mary”
Next week, the Breeders return with All Nerve, their first album in 10 years (since 2008’s Mountain Battles and the first with the classic lineup of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson since 1993’s Last Splash. We’ve heard two songs from it so far, “Wait In The Car” and the title track, and today the band are sharing another one, “Nervous Mary.”
“Nervous Mary” opens their new album, and it starts off aimless, a mindless guitar pluck and an ominous swash of feedback. Kim Deal’s voice invites you in slowly, and then all at once as the song picks up and the rest of the band kicks into high gear. The song chugs along like a revenge fantasy that can never reach the revenge part of the equation; the “Nervous Mary” of the title never gets what she deserves. “Nervous Mary had a nervous day/ Oxbow, strange glow/ She runs for the exit, but she never got away,” the Deals sing, their voices echoing off each other.
Listen below.