sleater-kinney, the woods

This album is really good.  Well, wait, let's start over.  I'm still in honeymoon phase here.  However, i did give this album a lot of listens because it's so angular compared to their recent work and i couldn't get a handle on my opinion other than a vague "it's good... i think."

If you go to their Web site, the intro Flash app will blast you with the first few seconds of the first track, "The Fox", which is one heck of a way to open an album; it's not as abrasive as, say, Alice in Chains's "Them Bones" off Dirt, but it still put me back on my aural heels.  Corin hasn't been so unmelodic and, well, screechy since their days on Chainsaw, yet the track successfully manages to work for me and set the tone for the rest of the record (which is perhaps ironic, since the rest of the album is more accessible).  Throughout the album, both she and Carrie do their best vocal work of their œuvre, their guitarwork is solid throughout and at times wholly unexpected (for example, the Hendrixesque break in "What's Mine is Yours" and the improvised 14+ minutes of contiguous jamming of "Let's Call It Love" and "Night Light"), and Janet's drumming is expressive and deep.

The Entertainment Weekly reviewer accurately called "Jumpers" "a spooky ode to Golden Gate Bridge suicide leapers;" the lyrics are excellent.  "Entertain", their first single, is the most energetic track and maybe the catchiest as well, with rolling drums and powerful vocals.  There are no weak tracks.  The bonus DVD contains four videos, one of which is an early version of "Entertain" with a different (and IMO inferior) chorus, and another of an album outtake, "Everything".

Anyway, i'm not certain if this should be the first Sleater-Kinney disc you should buy; you might be better off starting with Call The Doctor or Dig Me Out and working your way up chronologically.  But you should buy it because it's really frickin' good.

sleater-kinney, the woods

This album is really good.  Well, wait, let's start over.  I'm still in honeymoon phase here.  However, i did give this album a lot of listens because it's so angular compared to their recent work and i couldn't get a handle on my opinion other than a vague "it's good... i think."

If you go to their Web site, the intro Flash app will blast you with the first few seconds of the first track, "The Fox", which is one heck of a way to open an album; it's not as abrasive as, say, Alice in Chains's "Them Bones" off Dirt, but it still put me back on my aural heels.  Corin hasn't been so unmelodic and, well, screechy since their days on Chainsaw, yet the track successfully manages to work for me and set the tone for the rest of the record (which is perhaps ironic, since the rest of the album is more accessible).  Throughout the album, both she and Carrie do their best vocal work of their œuvre, their guitarwork is solid throughout and at times wholly unexpected (for example, the Hendrixesque break in "What's Mine is Yours" and the improvised 14+ minutes of contiguous jamming of "Let's Call It Love" and "Night Light"), and Janet's drumming is expressive and deep.

The Entertainment Weekly reviewer accurately called "Jumpers" "a spooky ode to Golden Gate Bridge suicide leapers;" the lyrics are excellent.  "Entertain", their first single, is the most energetic track and maybe the catchiest as well, with rolling drums and powerful vocals.  There are no weak tracks.  The bonus DVD contains four videos, one of which is an early version of "Entertain" with a different (and IMO inferior) chorus, and another of an album outtake, "Everything".

Anyway, i'm not certain if this should be the first Sleater-Kinney disc you should buy; you might be better off starting with Call The Doctor or Dig Me Out and working your way up chronologically.  But you should buy it because it's really frickin' good.