Sleater-Kinney close their eleventh album with a song called Untidy Creature. In recent years a polishing up of the Portland band’s furious, unhinged sound has been a problem for some, not least former drummer Janet Weiss. She quit the band just before the release of their 2019 album, The Center Won't Hold, saying: “The band is heading in a new direction and it is time for me to move on.”
That album was given a surprisingly accessible sheen by St Vincent on production duties, while 2021's self-produced Path of Wellness was more direct still. This time, the duo of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein turned to indie rock veteran John Congleton, who no one could accuse of taming their tone. The first song, succinctly titled Hell, is pure menace, a stark opening giving way to a suffocating avalanche of crashing drums and squalling guitar. Later, Six Mistakes is similarly intense, the guitars sawing and scraping while the drums hit with an impact that can be felt physically.
Tucker’s strident voice is another key factor in the raw power here. She holds her own amid the instrumental barrage, howling with gripping potency on songs such as Small Finds and Hunt You Down. “The thing you fear the most will hunt you down,” she sings.
That thing really happened to Brownstein in 2022. While travelling in Italy, her mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident. Although these songs were mostly written before that tragedy, it certainly darkens the feel of the music. There’s an exposed, extreme atmosphere even to slower songs such as Dress Yourself, where she takes the lead vocals, singing: “Dress yourself in clothes you love for a world you hate,” and “Get out now, while you still can/I hope you saved, this is that rainy day.”
Sitting through the 10 songs does have the occasional brighter moment. Crusader taps into wiry, punk-funk, and Don’t Feel Right barrels along over brisk guitar notes that feel relatively breezy in these surroundings. But it’s Say It Like You Mean It that keeps ringing in the ears long after the music has stopped. It’s a grand, sweeping anthem that could enrapture an arena rock crowd if these indie-level stalwarts ever rose beyond their scrappy roots.
They may have no interest in a mainstream breakthrough as they reach their fifties. But nor will they fade into the background with songs as powerful as these.
