The Woods

iTunes Review

Olympia, Washington’s Sleater-Kinney make a much greater noise than their modest power trio suggests. Their slashing rhythms, extraordinarily distorted guitars, fierce harmonies, and call and response tag-team vocals generate more sound than the sum of their parts. Founded on the do-it-yourself independence of punk rock and the early ‘90s riot grrrl scene, Sleater-Kinney are never interested in polishing a lick or settling for second rage. They go for the throat. After years of critical kudos for such rawness, they enlisted Mercury Rev’s Dave Fridmann to produce this collection. However, Fridmann makes no attempt to prettify a thing. He frees up the sonic space, but it’s only to enhance the dynamics of the emotionally driven insight into suicide (“Jumpers”) or to better catch the unexpected groove (“What’s Mine Is Yours”). Corin Tucker’s voice is still a shrill X-Ray-Spex-inspired wall of shriek. “Let’s Call It Love” is an 11-minute slow grind of primal guitar soloing and a noticeable shift into hard-rock territory. This new discovery of their inner guitar hero may make for interesting developments in the future.