Sleater Kinney / Wild Flag / Quasi / related bands

[tragabigzanda]

[bodysnatcher]

i've listened to this album twice: once on shitty laptop speakers, and once on a Sonos speaker that was in another room. giving it a spin now with proper headphones.

i took a break after "Restless" to make a sandwich. i'm gonna need the energy to make it the rest of the way.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[epilogue]

i've listened to this album twice: once on shitty laptop speakers, and once on a Sonos speaker that was in another room. giving it a spin now with proper headphones.

i took a break after "Restless" to make a sandwich. i'm gonna need the energy to make it the rest of the way.

Jesus, you guys. The album is like 10 minutes long.

[bodysnatcher]

i've listened to this album twice: once on shitty laptop speakers, and once on a Sonos speaker that was in another room. giving it a spin now with proper headphones.

i took a break after "Restless" to make a sandwich. i'm gonna need the energy to make it the rest of the way.

Jesus, you guys. The album is like 10 minutes long.

"Restless" felt that long

**looks at tracklist times**

that was 2 minutes and 40 seconds ?!

[epilogue]

i've listened to this album twice: once on shitty laptop speakers, and once on a Sonos speaker that was in another room. giving it a spin now with proper headphones.

i took a break after "Restless" to make a sandwich. i'm gonna need the energy to make it the rest of the way.

Jesus, you guys. The album is like 10 minutes long.

"Restless" felt that long

**looks at tracklist times**

that was 2 minutes and 40 seconds ?!

Oh you

[Birds in Hell]

This seems like a good a thread as any to ask, when did Fred Armisen become such a smug, pretentious douche?

Have you heard the band he used to play drums for in the 90s?

They're pretty good.

[bodysnatcher]

i've listened to this album twice: once on shitty laptop speakers, and once on a Sonos speaker that was in another room. giving it a spin now with proper headphones.

i took a break after "Restless" to make a sandwich. i'm gonna need the energy to make it the rest of the way.

Jesus, you guys. The album is like 10 minutes long.

"Restless" felt that long

**looks at tracklist times**

that was 2 minutes and 40 seconds ?!

Oh you

in all honesty, as much ribbing as i've been giving you and this record, i am super pumped that you love it. i wanted it to be great for you, especially with the Annie Clark collab. it's just not my thing, which is a bummer bc when the news broke, it sounded exciting. and that's all fine and good, it happens. that's the point of art, eh? as we both know, there are 1000 albums that you love and i don't, and 1000 albums i love that you don't. i actually don't listen to S-K all that much, and when i do, it's pre-Woods albums/songs, which is more my speed. i probably won't give this many more listens, unless a song pops up on the radio like it just did, and i give you free reign to bust my chops over the next album i love

[Kevin Davis]

Your last point is where you really lost me, though. I don't know the band or their minds. But your take there feels way off to me.

You're right, that comment was presumptuous and a little unfair. What I really meant was that it just sounds like a record by a band who didn't want to stay put but didn't really have anywhere logical to go either, so they went to a travel agent. In my experience, the most successful "transformation" records usually contain a sense of the artist and producer discovering together, stumbling into something that neither of them really had a framework or precedent for, as opposed to the artist approaching a producer or other artist and paying to be shoehorned into an already established mold. I know people are saying this doesn't really sound like a St. Vincent album, but I don't agree at all; I think it totally sounds like one, right down to the vaguely cabaret-sounding piano ballad. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mistake it for a St. Vincent record; it certainly isn't purged of any trace of identifiable S-K-ness. But, that's kind of how cosmetic surgery works. No one ever convincingly looks like what they're trying to look like; they just look like exaggerated, clownish versions of themselves.

Fear not, though -- I like "Reach Out" so much that I think I automatically like this better than a handful of pre-"All Hands" albums, none of which I've ever really been able to get into in any meaningful way.

[epilogue]

I'm sorry it's not your thing, snatch. I was excited for you, too and really wanted you to enjoy it. But so it goes. Maybe we'll both love the next one. And I'm sure we'll have a lot to discuss as I dive further back into their catalog.

[Kevin Davis]

I think it can be difficult when an artist does something that you really respond to and enjoy for a long time and then they do something different in a way that leaves out or changes or even disguises the things you liked most about their art. I totally understand that side of it. Personally, I've never been much for that kind of thing. I never wanted any of my favorite bands to repeat themselves. I'd honestly love for Pearl Jam, for example, to do a record like Center.

I want artists to evolve but once the length between releases gets over two and especially three years, the listener doesn't hear a evolution. They end up hearing the result of two or three evolutions. It's no longer a case of growing with the band but taking jumps with a band. That is difficult if during the 4-1/2 year gap your tastes evolved in different directions. It becomes more of a high school reunion and I don't feel bad if listeners want to rehash old times.

This is an excellent post, by the way.

And I'd love PJ to do an album like "Center" too, though at this point that's probably because I feel like there's nothing to lose. My personal version of this fantasy involves them reordering their stage positions, and making a hip-hop album with their newly assigned frontman, MC Mic McCready.

[swan]

My new rankings that nobody asked for:

1. All Hands on the Bad One
2. One Beat
3. The Woods
4. Dig Me Out
5. The Hot Rock
6. Call the Doctor
7. The Center Won't Hold
8. No Cities to Love
9. Sleater-Kinney

[tragabigzanda]

[swan]

My new rankings that nobody asked for:

1. All Hands on the Bad One
2. One Beat
3. The Woods
4. Dig Me Out
5. The Hot Rock
6. Call the Doctor
7. The Center Won't Hold
8. No Cities to Love
9. Sleater-Kinney

Id swap 1 and 2, and put the new one dead last, but I generally like this list

Keep in mind this list is from someone that is very in to the new album. That's how fucking good those older ones are.

Truly one of the best bands ever.

[bodysnatcher]

I'm sorry it's not your thing, snatch. I was excited for you, too and really wanted you to enjoy it. But so it goes. Maybe we'll both love the next one. And I'm sure we'll have a lot to discuss as I dive further back into their catalog.

maybe we'll canoodle over the next PJ album

[epilogue]

What I really meant was that it just sounds like a record by a band who didn't want to stay put but didn't really have anywhere logical to go either, so they went to a travel agent. In my experience, the most successful "transformation" records usually contain a sense of the artist and producer discovering together, stumbling into something that neither of them really had a framework or precedent for, as opposed to the artist approaching a producer or other artist and paying to be shoehorned into an already established mold.

Have you listened to the Song Exploder podcast ep about The Futre is Here?

Might move the needle a bit for you.

[epilogue]

All Hands is fucking great!

One Beat is also really solid.

I've only listened to each album one time. But I really like both of them more on first listen than I did The Woods on first listen. For whatever the fuck that's worth.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Strat]

Okay its a fine listen. Some fun stuff on there. Im not a huge SK fan to begin with so its more tolerable to me. I loved the woods though who didnt?

The issue I have with this is that I love the future is here so much i end up not caring about the rest of it. I kind of just listen to it for that payoff. Bad Dance is hilarious but i dig it.

St. Vincent should have just closed that album singing Broken.

[MadTIGERmaN]

Finally got it today -
One listen through, nothing stood out as a great song!
A few stood out as not so great

The Center Wont Holds outro is killer...
the verses for Reach Out have way to much of a "stand by me" riff where it totally takes away from the great chorus
Restless could have benefitted from a bass player... that song is just screaming for a bass line to fill in the sound!!!
I don't know what to make of Ruins at all...
Love - WHIP IT REAL GOOD! and I swear I'm hearing a little of "whisker patrol" from Portlandia's "Catnapped" band... this song should have been a B-side / unreleased
Bad Dance - I kinda like, its got a funky fun vib to it...


Can I Go On and Bad Dance might be the two songs I like the most (now just about 2 times through the album)

I am now thinking, the Carries ass picture has more to do with Janet leaving than the music. The "new direction" did not specify the sound, and could total be the "image" as nothing on the album seems to out of this world weird musically