Artist - Sleater-Kinney
Album - The Woods
Label - Sub-Pop
Reviewer - Chris Pacifico
On their seventh album The Woods, the Portland femme fatale trio has outdone themselves once again on an album that will forever remain a main staple of their discography. Of course Corrin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein have given their dual guitar licks a rather sharper edge and do the one on one tenor harmonies, but this is also the moment for drummer Janet Weiss to shine as she takes her percussion skills to a whole new terrain that is exuberant and volatile. With their signature supercharged punk riffs, The Woods is sometimes a darker effort that packs the punch that Sleater-Kinney has always contained in their unique sound. Produced by David Fridman who is mostly known for lending his talents to the more dreamy pop side of the coin with bands such as the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, he has graced The Woods with a resonance that is as crisp as it is jagged. Whereas their last release, 2002’s One Beat had a political-conscious edge to the lyricism, The Woods addresses the social climate as a result of the deaf, dumb, and blind America led by the spineless administration of George W. Bush and the stooges who keep him in power amongst other things.
The maiden wham of “The Fox” comes charging in with a pounding wall of fuzz as Tucker belts out that voice of hers that can bend steel, the likes of which have not been heard since Grace Slick did so in Jefferson Airplane. The corrosive guitar licks in “Wilderness” rivets themselves into your eardrum as the gritty spunk of “What’s Mine is Yours” meanders into a murky wedge. “Jumpers” is a psychedelically laced tune as Tucker screams like she is on top of mountain before conquering the world as more hazy folksy numbers like “Modern Girl” carry a bit of a Celtic twist to them.
Of course you can’t properly chide the people who flock to our nations tarnished leadership without admonishing the mass media in our modern age of the extreme-right as Sleater-Kinney do in “Entertain” with verses like “1,2,3, Give it to me easily/My feeble mind needs time/1,2,3, Make it sweet and syrupy with rhyme”. However, longtime fans will view “Entertain” as sort of an ode to the salad days of Sleater-Kinney with its breezy harmonies and flagrant moxie. Sleater-Kinney even travel to the land of the prog oriented side of the grass with the eleven minute opus “Let’s Call it Love” that sees
them going into sort of a jam/improve mode that they were known for during their electrifying sets in the summer of 2003 when they were the opening act for Pearl Jam.
The Woods will no doubt be one of the most remembered albums of Sleater-Kinney’s recording tenure as time goes on. The articulations of their songs are on point as their sound is more abrasive than it has ever been. They have done what so few bands have been able to do which is to redefine themselves without alienating their fan base.
