Though it's a tad sexist to make this distinction, I used to keep a mental list of the baddest chicks in rock. During her tenure as bass player for the Pixies and leader of the Breeders, Kim Deal consistently remained in my top three. The Breeders aptly titled (91 release) Last Splash looked, for all the world, to be the last we'd hear from Kim. She resurfaced briefly in 98 with a side project, but her struggles with substance abuse all but cost Miss Deal an entire decade. I certainly was excited by the news of the Breeders return, Kim's twin sis Kelly was back, but sadly their long awaited redux is, in truth, pretty disappointing. I expected something beyond where she left off with Last Splash, I imagined TK to be bulging with 10 years worth of pent-up brilliance--not quite the case I'm afraid. Much like the Breeders first album, Pod, TK relies on the same kind of angular, scarcely arranged, lo-fi anti-pop that occasionally evince glimpses of her former brilliance, but few of the songs really go anywhere and rarely hit pay dirt. Still I really shouldn't complain, it's great to hear her voice again, and if nothing else serves as a reminder of how far her shadow of influence has reached. Her contemporaries are too numerous to list and yes they are both male and female.