sleater-kinney is dead; long live (the) sleater-kinney (thread)

listening to the album for the first time now

it's...sort of anonymous?

it sounds a bit like the bare bones of s-k without any of the oomph, power, or poise that i associate with the band

and, after the wonderfully reflective lyrics of their comeback record, this really is painting-by-numbers stuff

generic, easy-listening version of sleater-kinney
 
Some of this is going to take some time to grow on me. The first half of the album, I was saying to myself, "If this was a band other than SK, I would probably never listen to this again." BUT! I then liked the second half a ton more. LOVE, The Dog/The Body and Broken were all stand out tracks for me. I really liked those. Broken is beautiful.
 
whatwhatsaywhat said:
listening to the album for the first time now

it's...sort of anonymous?

it sounds a bit like the bare bones of s-k without any of the oomph, power, or poise that i associate with the band

and, after the wonderfully reflective lyrics of their comeback record, this really is painting-by-numbers stuff

generic, easy-listening version of sleater-kinney
Click to expand...

I think I like the album better overall than you do, but I totally agree on lyrics. The Future Is Here especially - those lyrics sounds like a drunken conversation I'd have with my other 30+ year old friends where we're all trying really hard to sound profound. It's not, you know, something I'd be comfortable putting out there for the general public to hear. And then they punt on half the chorus with "na na nas" for good measure - come on.

Even if the album keeps growing on me, that song is always going to be the proverbial turd in the punchbowl for me.
 
It's kind of a bummer that this is now the defacto "Sleater-Kinney" thread. I'm not sure if it's a tribute or a burning effigy.

I'm shocked I'm about to write these words; I think this new album is better than No Cities to Love. And ultimately I really enjoyed No Cities to Love. It was nearly everything I wanted a comeback album from a band I grew up idolizing to be. Parts of it felt rusty, but it was also unmistakably a Sleater-Kinney album, which was a gift I thought I’d never be gifted again.

I’m tagging along with a group to see Dave Mathews at the Gorge in a couple weeks. I’m excited, but more for the spectacle of it opposed to the music. DMB isn’t really my thing, but I also think they get a bit of a bad rap. They are fine. The people I’m going with are mostly rabid fans. Hearing them describe their love of this band, I’d mostly describe it as comfort food to them. They know EXACTLY what they are going to get from a Dave Mathews concert, or a new DMB record. No alarms, no surprises.

Prior to The Center Won’t Hold, I would have described my fandom of SK in a very similar fashion without even realizing it. Sure, I’d go to bat for them as being higher art but blah blah blah, SK is just my comfort food. I want those riffs, I want those banshee screams, I want those epic “burn it all down” finishes. I would have signed on for 10 more No Cities if given the option.

Clearly that’s not what the band wanted to do. I can’t blame them. Prior to this album, I’ve always found SK to be an easy band to cherry pick singles from. I could take any one of their albums and quickly pick my 5-6 favorite songs. That’s not to say they were packed with filler… I just always found a clear hierarchy to their albums. The Center Won’t Hold feels like a total departure from that. To the point where I think they would have been better off not releasing any singles and dropping this album out of nowhere. In a vacuum, I disliked most the singles, and the overall rollout for the album felt like an over-saturation. And yet here I sit, on my 4th listen, and I love the overall vibe and direction this album took. I hope it’s a bridge to bigger, better things, but if this is as good as this phase gets, I’ll absolutely take it.

With the possible exception of a few cringey lyrical moments, I really can’t find fault with any of this. I’ve heard lots of praise for Broken, but if I do have a least favorite moment, it’s probably the stripped down low stakes approach to that track. All the singles fit seamlessly into this group, and it gels in a way I’ve never heard an SK album play out. It’s not the comfort food I was expecting, but as a whole I’m beyond surprised by how much I enjoy this. And even if it goes down as an outlier in the SK catalog, I think it adds to their legacy in a big way. They took a hard left with almost no growing pains, and in my humble estimation, that’s fucking rad.
 
I actually quite like this album. Definitely not a failure imo. Honestly, I was expecting even more of a departure than what it turned out to be. I’m happy with it and will probably spin it relatively often. It’s no masterpiece though and side 2 is better than side 1 on my first impression, though i still don’t like The Future Is Here much. Thankfully the split black/cream is pressed well and sounds good.
 
Teeeee said:
Some of this is going to take some time to grow on me. The first half of the album, I was saying to myself, "If this was a band other than SK, I would probably never listen to this again." BUT! I then liked the second half a ton more. LOVE, The Dog/The Body and Broken were all stand out tracks for me. I really liked those. Broken is beautiful.
Click to expand...
It's definitely a grower.
 
This album is mostly fine. I was expecting much worse based on the singles. My only real gripe is that it took me away from listening to the new Big Thief single on loop for half an hour. ☺
 
Teeeee said:
Some of this is going to take some time to grow on me. The first half of the album, I was saying to myself, "If this was a band other than SK, I would probably never listen to this again." BUT! I then liked the second half a ton more. LOVE, The Dog/The Body and Broken were all stand out tracks for me. I really liked those. Broken is beautiful.
Click to expand...

I listened to it twice through on my run this morning and I actually quite like the new album. Sure, it's not as visceral as the S-K of Dig Me Out and Hot Rock, but I'd be disappointed if they'd stayed the same band they were 20 years ago. I'll be interested how there live show is now without Janet; I saw them at RKCNDY in '98 and they were raw and angry, it's still a top concert memory for me.
 
I'm digging the new album alright thus far. Though not enough to be sad I swapped for Joel Ross. Part of that is likely due to the fact I feel pretty confident of its odds of sticking around as a swap for the foreseeable future. Also found myself thinking that I get why a drummer wouldn't be super psyched about this new direction. I feel like I could hear her apathy.
 
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