Disc of the day
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
Features Disc of the day
Sleater-Kinney
The Woods
(Sub Pop)
The bass-free trio's dramatic final curtain call.
"You come around looking 1984/You're such a bore, 1984." Entertain, the first single from their final album (and one of only a handful of singles in ten years) saw S-K's Carrie Brownstein turn her withering eye on media churn and the endless bands re-treading the fag-end of post-punk; dismissing the dreary retro hoards to "Join the rank and file on your TV dial". If only she could have know then how much worse the refried ''80s would get after her group split in 2006, a year after this album, a record which transformed Sleater-Kinney from tight, disciplined, hard core-indebted punks to a questing, experimental rock band. From the opening bars of The Fox, in which co-guitarist/vocalist Corin Tucker pits her yelping vocal against an oncoming river of muddy guitars it's clear that our trio of grown-up riot grrrls were fighting for new ground.
The punk brio of their''90s albums, bristling with youthful indignation and feminist rhetoric turned increasingly rocking with the addition of Quasi drummer Janet Weiss and by 2002's One Beat they were dabbling in vintage synths and millennial angst. But with The Woods Sleater-Kinney were looking to get lost. Teaming up with Dave Fridmann, known for fanning the flames of weirdness in Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, was a surprise move, but in truth his effect here is more of spurring them on, encouraging the trio to trample on the strictures of previous discipline and get loose like a goose (deuce, whatever...) Or, in the case of The Fox's twisting fable, a duck ("Laand ho!!"). They save their furthest out-there best for last, the 11-minute Let's Call It Love - a relationship-as-fight-club metaphor complete with "seconds out" bell and sonic twists and turns that segue into Night Light's romantic glimmer of hope.
Jenny Bulley
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 03/11/2009
Further Listening
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (Kill Rock Stars)
Mars Volta - Frances The Mute (Universal)
The Delgados - The Great Eastern (Chemikal Underground)
Previous Disc of the day
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Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2009
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-
Isley Brothers - The Brothers: Isley
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
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Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land
The trumpeter's most soulful excursion entrances MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 16/11/2009
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Fantastic album. Kudos!
Posted by Fox at 5:19 AM GMT 04/11/2009 Report Abuse
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This record would be my choice for the best record of the 00s. Taken as a whole it’s a wild and visceral comment on the state of modern America, it's thrilling frightening and compelling. It's the best thing S-K did, they certainly went out at the absolute top of their game.
Posted by PinE at 11:06 AM GMT 10/11/2009 Report Abuse
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