Go to the Sugar Altar

Her band's 1996 debut, Go to the Sugar Altar, was born out of a collaboration with musician Jesse Colin Roff while both were in a Minneapolis rehab facility. Much of the album, lyrically and musically, sounds informed by Deal's heroin experiences. Songs like the self-effacing "How About Hero" and "Canyon" are anthems to dysfunction, and Deal's brand of eccentric pop bounces between Velvets nod music and Brian Wilson at his most unbalanced. Still, Kelley gets across an easy humor and playfulness that makes Go to the Sugar Altar an even more likeable--if less solid--work than her previous recording appearance, on the Breeders' 1993 breakthrough Last Splash. When, and if, the Deal sisters ever record together again (rumors have circulated both ways), their newfound equal footing as songwriters and bandleaders should activate real Wondertwin power. And if it never happens, we'll be content to double our pleasure hearing the women soar along their separate trajectories. --Roni Sarig