How did you envision the future 25 years ago? When Corin Tucker hollered, “I’m the queen of rock ‘n’ roll!” two years into Sleater-Kinney’s tenure in 1996 the idea of a “girl band”—a label the band sarcastically threw back into its critics’ faces on All Hands On The Bad One in 2000—as titans of rock was unlikely enough to be pointedly political. Much has happened in the interim: Janet Weiss joined the band, then left just last month; Sleater-Kinney broke up, and got back together; and Tucker’s declaration has, in some ways, come to pass. (Not quite Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists” come to pass, but still.) And that’s just within the band itself. In case you haven’t heard, the world is on fire, and Sleater-Kinney’s new album The Center Won’t Hold both grapples with the heartsickness of wondering how we got here and imagines a new era where love conquers all.
In the Sleater-Kinney canon, The Center Won’t Hold most resembles One Beat; like that 2002 album, it’s a politically charged record whose hopscotching between musical styles reflects the confusion of its times. One Beat was a response to 9/11 and the early days of the George W. Bush administration, and The Center Won’t Hold similarly captures the disbelief, dread, and gut panic that gripped the trio (now duo) when Donald Trump assumed office in January 2017. The difference this time is in the presentation: Producer Annie Clark, a.k.a St. Vincent, brings a wholly new sound to the record, a sleek, sharp industrial/synth-pop hybrid that sounds like bubblegum on brushed steel and embraces screeching feedback and bubbly synthesizers alike.
Clark’s Metropolis sensibility ebbs and flows, gripping hardest on album opener “The Center Won’t Hold”—which announces its intentions with the sound of mallets clanging on metal in its opening moments—and singles “Hurry On Home” and “The Future Is Here,” which blend fuzzy guitar and industrial percussion with radio-ready keyboards and sweet vocal harmonies. These pop experiments are wisely distributed throughout the album, alternating with songs utilizing an impressively versatile array of guitar sounds—kitschy disco strumming (“Can I Go On”), frenetic punk-rock swing (“Bad Dance”), warm classic-rock swell (“The Dog/The Body”), hypnotic art-rock jams (“Ruins”), and, of course, a fist-pumping anthem or two, all underlaid with Weiss’ distinctive, pounding drumbeats. (She won’t be on the group’s fall tour, but she hasn’t been replaced with a drum machine just yet.)
Based on Sleater-Kinney’s history of political songwriting, empowerment is the feeling we expect to come rushing in when “Reach Out” builds to its rousing chorus. But listen closer, and the fragility behind those stadium-size hooks becomes obvious as Tucker sings, “I’m losing my head… the darkness is winning again.” These are indeed dark times, and The Center Won’t Hold takes its time coming around from despondency—“Baby, I’m not sure I want to go on at all,” Tucker confesses on “Can I Go On”—to resistance and hope. Along the way, politics, relationships, and tales from the van blend and twist into a single lyrical strand, threaded through Sleater-Kinney’s signature self-reflexiveness. (“Call the doctor / Dig me out of this mess,” Brownstein winks on “Love.”)
This may also be Sleater-Kinney’s lustiest album yet. Several of the album’s 11 songs are peppered with breathy sighs and ecstatic yelps, and it’s almost as if Brownstein is staring you directly in the eyes as she sings, “Let me defang you and defile you on the floor,” in “Bad Dance.” But this, too, has its political aspect. Sex is a common distraction for those who are desperate to escape their realities, and the record’s compulsive fixation on the physical reflects its larger desperation to find meaning in the chaos. Besides, what’s more radical than women over the age of 40 being aggressively sexual? As the band puts it in “Love,” “There’s nothing more threatening and nothing more obscene / Than a well-worn body demanding to be seen.”
A stunning finale is another Sleater-Kinney specialty, and The Center Won’t Hold delivers with the devastating, disarming “Broken,” which puts into words the feeling of spiritual brokenness felt by so many women during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings last September. For assault survivors, just getting up and going to work with all these resurfaced feelings swirling around is a trial, and Tucker eloquently captures that struggle when she sings: “I really can’t fall apart right now / I really can’t touch that place / I thought I was all grown up right now / I really can’t show that face,” her vibrato-laden voice naked over a spare piano line. Reliving past traumas is hardly the sort of nostalgia any of us long for, but in our surreal dystopian present, it’s just another fact of life. So thank goodness that, after 25 years, Sleater-Kinney is striding boldly into the future, bruised and broken but still very much alive.
127 Comments
Wow, whereas I would have jizzed in my pants a few years ago at an A for Chance and an A for Sleater-Kinney in the same month, the Chance is severely underwhelming (if not the ZERO that the white needle-drop guy gave it), and the songs I’ve hear from this so far are similarly not reaching my “whelm” threshold. Both have been released with severe overexplaining to position them as protest songs or songs about taking control of one’s own body and destiny…and then you listen to them and they sound pretty boring. When a band that sounds like nobody else, teams with a producer who sounds like nobody else and they suddenly sound like everybody else, who is to blame? St. Vincent? Whose aesthetic of idolization has approached the ironic/non-ironic DMZ to the point where I showed up to an ENORMOUS concert hall to see her and she played an underproduced set entirely by herself? Whose completely out of place split-body parts, 180-butts and eyeginas are on the album art? Janet wouldn’t have left if it was just another one-and-done producer (At least after Dave Fridmann everybody left). Likely culprit is Carrie, who is apparently now featuring herself as the lead singer, picking the producer, and as in a recent interview she spoke unironically about wanting S-K to have their OWN FONT. Well, speaking of branding: if they’re not going to make an S-K record they should just call the project something else.I’ll keep listening and see if it grows on me, but if Janet Weiss leaves…that’s the G.O.A.T. in the coal-mine. I mean…the center didn’t hold…they were defeated…the music didn’t keep them together.
“White” Needle-Drop guy? Isn’t there only one guy in The Needle-Drop?
he’s the whitest person on earth. He makes the latvian foreign exchange students we got in high school look tanned, rested, and ready.
Goddamn it! You telling me that I’ve lost yet another title to some schmuck?!
Likely culprit is Carrie, who is apparently now featuring herself as the lead singer, picking the producer…. It was actually Janet who first suggested working with Anne Clark.
Yeah, they made a Sleater-Kinney record. They just didn’t make the record you wanted.
The Chance record is another album the AVclub that was straight up garbage that the editorial staff needed to spin into a good record. Review the music not the narrative.
Besides, what’s more radical than women over the age of 40 being aggressively sexual?http://yasminnair.net/content/your-sex-not-radical
I find women over 40 being aggressively sexual to be pretty rad.
I rely on it.
Speak for yourself, Yasmin Nair.
There’s some perhaps interesting ideas in that article, but it’s also a pretty dated article (even though it’s only from 2015). I can see those arguments being far more convincing under Obama than they are under Trump (and this Supreme Court).
It seem like the author is only understands the word “radical” in the context of anti-capitalism.
Same!
That is the only meaningful context for the “radical,” yes.
Maybe I’m a neoliberal bootlicker shill or whatever, but these sorts of articles always rub me the wrong way. Obviously, people aren’t going to behead Jeff Bezos with their cumshots, but there should be room for discourse outside of the evils of capitalism.
I’m not sure what else you’re referring to, but I think it’s safe to say Yasmin Nair is not crowding out other discourse.
Of course she isn’t. I mean that just because it doesn’t singlehandedly topple global capitalism doesn’t mean it’s not radical.
She and I would tend to disagree, certainly in the case of being queer/poly/whatever. It’s completely in line with the status quo and not radical. Which is fine, do whatever you want, but it’s not changing anything.
No mention of her accident?https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/janet-weiss-cancels-tour-car-accident-871450/
I like how that article ends with “Weiss also performed at the Newport Folk Festival last month, with Jim James and Kermit the Frog.” Like just anyone gets to perform with Kermit the Frog at Newport. Hell, Dylan didn’t even perform with him!
Hearing Sleater-Kinney morph into a faceless pop group is the most depressing musical evolution of the millenium.
And Liz Phair did it first.
Honestly I was never that bothered about Liz Phair; she was pretty open about selling out because she was a single mom who paid her dues and wanted to finally make shitloads of money. It fits into her persona at least. The new Sleater-Kinney sounds like Brownstein feels the need to maintain her brand now that Portlandia’s ended.
Exile in Guyville and Dig Me out are two of my five favorite albums of all time, and this whole thread is now patently depressing.Dear God, I hope this doesn’t mean Sleater-Kinney has their own Funstyle at some point in the future.*shudders*
Well now that they no longer need any pretence to keep Janet Weiss in the studio…yeah I would shudder
How’s this selling out?
Now that you’ve pointed it out, this new album feels exactly like Brownstein maintaining her “brand.” It’s hard to trade your IMDB listing back for your punk rock bona fides.
Somebody actually banged Liz Phair? How drunk was he?
Am I insane or did nothing happen before 1994?
Hey, I liked that Liz Phair song that was in 13 Going on 30!
I’m very curious about what people describing this stuff as faceless/sell-out pop think the songs on the radio actually sound like these days.
like the new Sleater-Kinney record, duh, though admittedly, and to their credit, without a rapper doing the hook
You’re not doing much to disabuse me of the notion that people leveling these charges do not pay a lot of attention to what pop radio actually sounds like, starting with the idea that a rapper does the hook (instead of a rapper doing most of the song and having a guest do the hook).
You’re right, and to step back and give a slightly more serious answer, I disagree with your premise that ‘faceless pop’ necessarily=music played on ‘pop radio’ (who cares about pop radio anymore? ) Most of it does sound like the kind of hipster synthpop that’s been big among the Pitchfork crowd the past five or so years. They’ve gone from being one of the most aggressive, challenging bands of their era to just another group looking for space on a Spotify Women’s Empowerment playlist. So I’ll admit it’s more faceless bland Whole Foods music rather than faceless bland Food Lion music.
OK, I better see what you’re talking about now… though I disagree that any of this new S-K stuff (I’ve only heard the singles, not yet the full record) sounds much of anything like, say, The 1975 (don’t know if that’s the kind of band you’re getting at, but I just thought, “what’s a band I think is terrible that got a great Pitchfork review recently”). It sounds a lot more abrasive than what I tend to hear in Whole Foods (though I do love that Whole Foods faceless vs. Food Lion faceless comparison). And, I dunno, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear something from No Cities at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or whatever.
Damn, thanks for continuing to talk so I know not to take your opinion seriously.
Good lord you sound insufferable. Do you even follow Pitchfork? Just looking at their recent reviews there’s not any sort of clear pattern, let alone “hipster synthpop” whatever that means. In an effort to be cooler than those you surely perceive to be phonies, you’ve disappeared up your own ass.
I mean, Pitchfork was touting that stuff about ten years ago, but I don’t think it’s really their thing anymore.
Listening to this record, and reading your comment, I immediately thought of the scene in Avengers: Endgame where all the female heroes pose for their big splash-page moment. It was such a 2019 pop culture moment that was trying too hard, felt extremely awkward, and was so poorly executed it completely obscured the whole point of the attempt. Just like this record.I am so bummed that every bad thing i worried about this record being ended up being true. I’m just glad that it wasn’t their comeback album. I don’t think I could have taken that much disappointment…
The idea that “pop” and “rock” are even kissing-cousins is about 10 years out of date.
There’s a quantifiable difference in quality of the songcraft of different pop. There’s the 30 songs on pop country radio, for example, that all sound like the same 3 lazy songs. And there’s, say, St. Vincent, Santigold, Kendrick Lamar, etc. on the other end of that scale.
“Pop-rock” isn’t the same thing as “pop”. If someone calls the new Sleater-Kinney pop they’re not saying “this sounds literally identical to Taylor Swift” they’re saying “Sleater-Kinney have taken their traditional sound and modified it to be bland and generically pleasing to reach the widest radio audience possible.” Same thing with pop-punk, pop-rap, etc.,
Well, alert me when S-K turns up here:
https://www.billboard.com/charts/rock-songs
Just because they’re aggressively trying to be popular doesn’t mean it’s going to work.
It just seems like a bit of an abstraction to me: They’re aggressively trying to be popular by… not really sounding like mainstream rock bands, not really sounding like big pop acts of the day, (supposedly) betraying their fanbase, and being still unlikely to actually hit the charts in a big way? It’s almost as if they’re just changing their sound, and not really making an aggressive play for popularity at all.
I think this person is confusing relevance with popularity, which is why he went with the demographic description. So I’m guessing the argument is S-K is working with fresh young upstart St. Vincent (!) in a desperate attempt to stay relevant. Which is hilariously myopic and makes me miss Hipster Runoff but whatever. I’ve only listened to the singles but the experimentation sounds sincere, like Bowie on Earthling (vs. The Cure’s half-assed electronica flourishes on Bloodflowers). Also they already fucked around on The Woods and that album is awesome.
Um, this is the first time I’ve looked at the Billboard chart in at least 25 yrs. Can someone explain why Tool’s all over it? Have I been in a coma this whole time and it’s actually just tomorrow and also Tool got more popular while I was out?
I believe it has to do with the streaming/YouTube/whatever algorithms that incorporate those plays along with actual sales.
In the past year or so, there’s been new albums from Rammstein, Slipknot, Tool and A Perfect Circle and it’s weird AF.
They just put out a new song, plus finally put their music on Spotify
“Can someone explain why Tool’s all over it? Have I been in a coma this whole time and it’s actually just tomorrow and also Tool got more popular while I was out?”All of their albums were just released digitally for the first time, along with their first new single in 13 years.
They just dumped all their albums on streaming platforms. 2 weeks before their first album in 10 years. They’re a big deal for the first time in 15 years right now.
I don’t think people are accusing it of being faceless/sell-out compared to anything on the radio, but it sure feels faceless compared to Sleater-Kinney’s own catalogue.
Yeah they’re probably lying about the sounds they ears and can’t make and cant mke a point of comparison when it comes to this band they’ve been following for decades. Anything to fit the narrative you writers need to spin.
That’s a fair point, but “a sleek, sharp industrial/synth-pop hybrid” would not describe anything Sleater-Kinney has ever done.
For what it’s worth, “alt” radio in Northern California (not, like, KPFA) is Weezer’s “Beverly Hills”, Peter Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks”, and Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks”, plus whatever single du jour from Neon Trees/Walk The Moon/Imagine Dragons. I mean, it’s kind of a nightmare.
It wouldn’t describe anything they’ve done, no, but that’s not really a criticism; that’s just a fact.And I’ve only listened to the whole thing once but I don’t really see any of this S-K stuff getting picked up by the Imagine Dragons Best Buy Rock crowd. (Though, I dunno, I like “Young Folks” and “Pumped Up Kicks.” Solid songs! Not really what this record sounds like, though.)
I felt the same way about Cherri Bomb. After a great rock debut they quickly morphed in a pop group renamed, “Hey Violet”.
Alternatively, it’s nice to see a band do whatever the fuck they want, not what their fans want. the whole, “I don’t like this, so I think the band sold out”, thing is so overplayed. Music fans should take a page from Disraeli, who once said, “…when I want to read a book, I write one.”, when they want to complain about a band’s choices. I mean, if you’re still listening to the same type of sounds you listened to 25 years ago and resist new things, your favorite band isn’t the problem.
Did you even read the review?There’s some fascinating psychology at work here regarding the way straight white male fans have revolted over this record. A crude hypothesis could I guess posit that the relative absence of a by-the-numbers rock sound and some elements of electronica is enough to make them feel like the band is no longer sufficiently masculine enough for them. Which if true just shows that they’ve completely misunderstood S-K from the ground up.
Yeah, another straight white male who didn’t like the new direction is Janet Weiss. Must not have been masculine enough for her.
Idk seems like there’s a lot more straight white men angry about this album than Janet Weisses
I think there may be more straight white men on the planet than there are Janet Weisses. Not sure. One Beat is a beloved album that isn’t overly ‘masculine’ (forgetting how stupid it is to pretend rock = masculine and electronic = feminine). Wonder why that one was spared the wrath of all the straight males?
I mean it is stupid and it’s a shame so many people buy into it. But One Beat was absolutely a straight-ahead rock album in a way that the new record isn’t
All the dudes dumping on an album they haven’t listened to are obviously members of Sleater-Kinney. That, or they’re annoyed that a band they got to pat themselves on the back for liking in the 90s now sounds kind of like a woman whose music they don’t like. One of those.
This gets to the heart of it, I think. And shows how few of these guys understood their music at all.
Also, I want to point out that the very first response in this thread was a dig at Liz Phair. Not Smashing Pumpkins, REM, or any number of punk bands that gradually lost their relevance. Just “Sleater-Kinney sucks now – and so does this other woman!”
I’m a big St. Vincent fan, though her last album is the weakest since Marry Me. I know we have to discuss things in terms of identity because this is the internet in 2019, but the fact that this new album is such a departure that a longtime member of the band quit due to the new direction should maybe clue you in that it’s more than toxic masculinity that’s giving people pause here.
Getting back to the first post in this thread, what’s giving people pause is the notion that Sleater-Kinney “sold out” because the new album doesn’t sound like Dig Me Out. It’s a ridiculously out of touch viewpoint that assumes rock music is still a dominant form of popular music (it’s not), ignores the fact that Sleater-Kinney has always played “pop music” (catchy hooks, solid beats, sing along choruses), and cleaves to the notion that professional musicians are supposed to shun popularity. More to the point, this whole thread is crawling with dudes who think that the target audience for any band is “dudes who brag about loving Exile in Guyville and then shit on Liz Phair for betraying them.” Or dudes who pretend to know exactly why Janet Weiss left the band and then ascribe opinions to her, for that matter.
Yeah, I mean, I don’t exactly care about ‘selling out’ or know what that means. But Janet explicitly left the band because of the new direction. She said as much. Before she left the band, I heard one or two of the new singles and thought, “this isn’t very good.” It may be because I’m a straight guy (???) who suddenly decided I didn’t like new Sleater Kinney because I’m too concerned with being masculine (???) and, by the way, I’ve always hated St. Vincent for some reason (???), or it may be because the new stuff is different and off-putting enough that a person who was a member of the band for over two decades left and cited the new direction of the band as the reason. I’ll still listen to the album and give it a shot, but the singles are the weakest stuff I’ve ever heard from them.
It’s truly bizarre. They’ve never been the least bit unapproachable – they’re a three piece band with vocals, guitar, and drums, and they write songs about relationships and feelings. They’ve been critical darlings since the mid 90s, and they were never platinum-selling Rock Stars because (let’s be honest) their sound was a little too raw for an all-women band. The whole idea of “selling out” is a dated, explicitly white myth that justifies shitting on music that people purport to like. It’s exhausting.
This was an interesting take. Thanks for sharing it.
There’s some fascinating psychology at work in how S-K fans who DO like the new record immediately turn to these identity political ravings when faced with any criticism of the band’s new direction. S-K has already done plenty of experimentation with mellower sounds in the past (c.f. ‘The Hot Rock’), experimentation that was largely accepted by fans. S-K never had a ‘by-the-numbers rock sound,’ nor the type of mindless, aggro fanbase such a sound might attract. Part of the point of S-K was challenging the equation of confrontational rock with masculinity. In any case, bands change over time and try new things. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes not, and people should be free to disagree about this without being subject to caricature and derision. I know many longtime fans–not just white dudes–who simply don’t care for this new incarnation of S-K, for a variety of reasons, all of them a lot more complex than your blackboard diagrams would give them credit for.
This is a really bad take considering how many women I know- and I’m one of them – really don’t like this new album.
This might be the most laughable “A” ever given here…I listened to the record this morning and my immediate thought was “I can see why Janet quit.” When news of her quitting first broke, I thought, well maybe there’s too much electronic drums and she really genuinely does not like the direction St. Vincent is steering this band in. Now I think the answer is a lot simpler: She’s just completely embarrassed by the idea of playing these songs live.
naw, they were always depressing. now that they’re pre-menopausal it’s embarrassing
lets be real most of you just started listening to this band because of portlandia
Maybe I’m not as hip to music as I thought, but do producers usually leave fingerprints that deep? Because if it weren’t for Carrie and Corin’s vocals I would swear those were St. Vincent tracks.
I’m definitely going to give this album a try on its own, and expect some of the singles to work better in context, but I have to agree, even if I didn’t know St. Vincent produced, I would have assumed she was involved.
Depends on the producer. When, say, Trent Reznor produces a record it’s gonna sound like Nine Inch Nails. But when, say, Rick Rubin produces a record he tries to get good songs and performances from the musicians but there’s no distinct Rick Rubin sound.
That’s why I’ve never been thrilled by Trent Reznor’s film scoring work; it all sounds like NIN b-sides whether that style is appropriate for the film or not.
That’s why I like ‘em, but to each his own.
When it works its fantastic but I think he needs to be super picky with what projects he takes on as his range is quite limited. He’s great at what he does but it feels like he sometimes tries to go to far out of his comfort zone with less than stellar results.
Pretty much every Danger Mouse production sounds like Broken Bells.
yeah i guess depending on the person, that’ a good thing, but I think he has generally sucked the life out of every rock performer he has ever worked with. also his bass tone is identical on every. single. record.
Sleater-Vincent.Dunno, but it really sounds like a St. Vincent album from the songs I’ve heard, and, well, I’m not a fan of St. Vincent. I can appreciate her skill and songs and think she’s great, but she’s not my cup of tea. Sleater-Kinney always sounded like themselves, even though Call the Doctor—>The Hot Rock—>The Woods are hugely different albums. The latest stuff doesn’t sound like anything other than a bunch of St. Vincent outtakes with a couple borrowed lead singers.
Plenty of producers who make others’ records just as much their record. Daniel Lanois, Nigel Godrich, Jeff Lynne, T Bone Burnett, Butch Vig, Brian Eno. Nick Lowe, when he produced stuff, kind did and didn’t do that. Listening to his punk-era productions is like being hit with a beautifully polished baseball bat. OK, now I really want to hear a Nick Lowe produced Sleater-Kinney record. I know. Extremely likely.
Jeff Lynne immediately came to mind. It’s not always a bad thing, but they always have that Jeff Lynne/ELO sheen.
He’s the obvious one for me too (think of Roy Orbison’s You’ve Got It as case in point, along with much of George Harrison and Tom Petty’s 80s work). But I think he was reasonably restrained on the Beatles Anthology track Free as a Bird.
Ugh don’t get me started with Daniel Lanois…
Yeah I know. I mean, he and Dylan worked well together (despite not working well together) and I’m thankful for that. But his pathological need to slather everything in swampy reverb is just very one note. Fashionable for aging Americana-type artists looking to reinvent themselves in the 90s, but very one note.
I can’t remember what triggered it, but that was like an entire day’s worth of ranting for me working at the old record store once upon a time. lol
I think did the same thing working at a record store. My co-workers just looked at me funny for a second then went on talking about power pop.
Depends. Danger Mouse does.
I’d say when a core member quits the band right before they’re supposed to start a huge tour… maybe the new producer had a little too much influence.
The difference between Dig Me Out, Hot Rock, and The Woods is all in “production.” Those albums don’t really sound like each other (in terms of songwriting and recording), yet they’re all distinctly Sleater-Kinney albums. The fact that the current producer is a songwriter is basically short-circuiting people’s idea about the “purity” of a band’s sound.
In my opinion a good producer should be inaudible and not be known for a signature sound, especially if it reflects their own work. He/she should be as much editor and therapist as sound engineer and be their only to help a band realize the record in their heads. All too often bands bring in producers for commercial considerations or as a shortcut to achieving a new sound and the results are seldom very good. I think Sleater-Kinney are at that point where they aren’t really functioning as a real band that can make music organically anymore. Sometimes a band needs to take a detour or even make an awful record to find their footing again. Time will tell but I’m skeptical.
Janet Weiss was just in a serious car accident.
she is okay thank god but had to cancel her tour (which was going to run pretty closely parallel to the S-K tour)…she had a broken collarbone and leg but says after 12 weeks she should be recovered. Don’t cross Carrie.
Rumor has it Janet was going to be the drummer for Hillary Clinton’s new band, and got too close.#Q
So she escaped trainwreck for a car accident…What I mean is… this album is AWFUL.
Shocked to see Janet Weiss dismissed so out of hand in this review. Weiss jumped on in 1996 and has been S-K’s sole drummer for the last 23 years. As you mention here, it’s her beat that drives this despite the glossy St. Vincent varnish that overlays the whole project. This album isn’t Sleater-Kinney, and Weiss is the only one who wants to admit it.
All the critics are telling me this is a band I’m supposed to like, but I don’t. I’ve tried. I’ve bought the records. I’ve listened. Meh. Likewise, St. Vincent. I appreciate that they’re talented, and have strong voices, but the music doesn’t move me.
I never got into St. Vincent despite really really trying, until MASSEDUCTION. Liked it well enough. If you don’t like St. Vincent, this is not the album to listen to.
Maybe its a US vs Europe thing , but I have literally never EVER heard of them outside this site . ( and this as someone who tries to listen to a bit of everything)…
You’ve been missing out for a long time in terms of SK. ,”Jumpers” is one of my all time favorite songs fwiw. St. Vincent I’m a fan of but she’s not known for having a razor sharp rock edge. I liked it on first listen but I do miss that edge in their music. I can see why Weiss left, it’s a big difference in sound.
thanks for that info. nobody cares, move on with your life.
Just got it last night. It’s excellent. So refreshing to hear a band that’s not interested in coasting genuinely tackle new challenges and journey into new territory.
I think they proved that point on No Cities to Love. This… this is just… my god. It’s SO bad. It’s new territory all right. It’s the first SK album that flat-out sucks. But that’s about it. The “new sound” just sounds like a dozen other records released in the last few years, and it’s not as good as any of them.I am just relieved in retrospect that THIS is not the album they came back with three years ago. At least they showed they can still make a good record, even if they can make terrible choices.
It’s deeply underwhelming but I can’t wait for you to incorrectly call me a straight white guy and dismiss my opinion.
I’ve never cared much for Carrie Brownstein’s vocals so never minded when it’d pop up on the occassional song or two. She’s great in the background but why in god’s name would you have her as lead vocals for so many songs when you’ve got one of the greatest wailers in rock in Corin Tucker??? I just can’t understand why Corin’s been sidelined to backup and ooh-ahs when she should always be lead vocal. Granted, I’ve only heard 3 songs released but all 3 were Carrie lead vocals and I really can’t stand her voice as lead vocal. Too breathy and diaphragm-y, like she’s auditioning for The Voice. Give me Corin’s wails any day.
I can only take Carrie’s voice in small doses. She sings like she’s uncomfortable with the sound of her own singing voice, so has to throw in all these voice modulations and affectations. At worse, she sounds like she’s trying to copy Corin’s ferocity, but it pales in comparison.
I can’t believe that she sings most of the vocals on this. That’s like having an entire meal of tartar sauce with a side of half a fish stick.
You come around looking 1984
You’re such a bore, 1984!Also, how quick were you to erase Janet from the header picture despite her being on the album?
If you were to draw a scatter chart of The Center Won’t Hold reviews from Metacritic critics and pick out the outliers, this review would get tossed out. So would a brutal review from the NY Times. The reception to this one is going to be a pretty interesting cycle to watch and I’ll be intrigued to see how often it pops up on year end lists.
The NYT review was spot on, though. This album is just so so bad. Granted, I’ve only gotten through the first half because I can’t even bear to listen to anymore. It is crushingly disappointing. No Cities to Love was great and I’m glad we got another tour out of them, but if this album existing is the price for that pretty good record, I wish they’d stayed on hiatus.
As a being over a millenium old, may i say, human women in their 40s are HOT.
Oh let me post this again for any idiot that didn’t play it, it’s perfect:
All the hand-wringing from people who haven’t even heard the album yet is tiresome. I was very apprehensive from the couple of songs I’d heard released at first too, but having sat with the record a few days now, I think it mostly worked out. Definitely a new direction for the band, but some great songs in here. A lot of the strongest tracks in my opinion — Reach Out, Restless, Ruins, The Dog/The Body — weren’t released as singles, but they tie the whole thing together nicely.
I’m also someone who didn’t grow up with Sleater-Kinney and only got into their catalogue in the past decade. St. Vincent is also my favorite current musician, full disclosure. So maybe I was primed to be more ok with the change than other people, older people or rock-purists or whatever. I’m not married to their sound or a specific image of the band enough that I mind that they changed up their sound — they’re still talented people who made a really good album. What they’re saying still resonates and the songs still sound good.
“Can I Go On” made me nervous as a single, but it wasn’t indicative of the rest of the album for me.
After giving it a few listens I really like it, but it doesn’t sound like Sleater-Kinney, like so many people are saying, it sounds like Corin and Carrie singing over St. Vincent tracks. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. They’ve put out so many amazing rock albums, and if they want to change up a bit, good for them. I haven’t seen any news about who will be drumming for them on tour though, those are some big shoes to fill. I also want to throw it out there that Carrie’s vocals on the title track sounds like Lesley Rankine from Ruby and Silverfish to me.
I’’ll have to listen to the album more to really make up my mind, but what throws me off is that I’ve always had a hard time getting into St Vincent. On paper, it’s the kind of music I should like. But when I listen to St Vincent, it just sort of evaporates into the atmosphere.
St. Vincent hasn’t made a good record since Actor. This record isn’t very good either. Also, lol, at “what’s more radical than women over the age of 40 being aggressively sexual?” This was a radical idea, what, 20 years ago? Samantha on Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives, etc etc etc., the entire second half of Madonna’s career. not sure how something that was recognized and accepted by mainstream culture two decades ago is still radical.
*staring at the title “Los Ageless” and groaning for two straight years* Good evening, Safeway shoppers. Will the owner of a store-brand Tori Amos please pick her up at the customer service desk?
Sleater-Kinney “as titans of rock…” Hyperbole the down fall of journalism.
https://thoaihoacotsong.vn/tri-thoat-vi-dia-dem/thuoc-chua-thoat-vi-dia-dem/
God they are just awful. Whoever told these women they had musical talent? Music for people who get beat up a lot.
“Besides, what’s more radical than women over the age of 40 being aggressively sexual?”Seizing and redistributing the wealth of the rich? Abolishing police and prisons? A long list of things, really.