Breaking Things

Singer Scott Reynolds had left All following their 1992 album Percolater. As their new singer they recruited Chad Price, a friend and fan of the band who had sung backing vocals on Percolater. "Chad had been sort of a fan that we just got to be friends with", said guitarist Stephen Egerton. "I'd say there are few people with more of a lucky, natural gift for singing than Chad." "When Chad joined, we had kind of a backlog," recalled Egerton, "and we all learned each other's songs to get ready for what became Breaking Things. In addition to the album's two singles, "Shreen" and "Guilty", Stevenson penned "Birthday I. O. U." which described his feelings after Sarina Matteucci, his girlfriend of several years, had an abortion: "There really wasn't a choice / Seventeen was just too young [ ] I know you could have been a girl, baby / Now you can't be anything / We needed you to prove our love / We used you, then we killed you".</blockquote>

Musically, Breaking Things leaned toward a more aggressive sound than the band's previous efforts. Alvarez later said "In the '90s, the bands The Lemons and Zeke came into our orbit. It definitely was a much needed bitch slap in the face to our band musically, because it was very cool to hear bands addressing the stuff with the right amount of aggression."

Breaking Things was recorded in March and April 1993 at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with record producer and recording engineer John Hampton. Breaking Things was mastered by John Golden at K Disc in Hollywood, and released August 16, 1993 through Cruz Records in LP, cassette, and CD formats. Suburban Voice called it "a return to form after the somewhat disappointing Percolator." Julie River from Punk News gave the album three out of five stars, saying, "Breaking Things doesn’t hold up to a lot of the best albums in the Descendents/All catalogue, but it has some really great moments and really did churn out a number of All’s greatest classic hits."