While the novelty value of a bunch of young ladies playing shouty punk music may have faded a long time ago, Sleater-Kinney's new album finds them in the best form they've been for some time. In large part this is because the Washington trio have toned down their political sloganeering of old, mixing it with a more personal style of songwriting that suits them surprisingly well. Thus the affecting Faraway examines Bush's War on Terror from a mother's point of view, while Sympathy is a stripped-down blues track that revisits the recent premature birth of singer Corin Tucker's son. If all this sounds a little too earnest, then it shouldn't andshy; Sleater-Kinney haven't lost their sense of fun and they know how to rock out in a most unladylike way whenever the desire takes hold of them. Old fans, meanwhile, will be reassured by the fact that Tucker still screeches rather than sings and the whole thing sounds comically under-produced, not unlike a lo-fi version of Blondie. Business as usual, then, and none the worse for that.

Your Comments

No comments have been posted for this article yet. Be the first!