Sleater-Kinney Rediscover Heavy Phase On Hard-Hitting ‘Little Rope’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

The eleventh studio album from the dynamic Sleater-Kinney, LIttle Rope, finds the band grappling with grief and the recent directions they have been exploring as a duo. 

Little Rope is shrouded in tragedy. While writing/recording Carrie Brownstein found out through bandmate Corin Tucker that her mother and stepfather had died in a car crash while on vacation in Italy. Brownstein retreated into the guitar as the songwriting deals with loss, depression, misery, and hatred of the world at large, while the music mixes alt sounds, modern pop, and dance rock. 

The duo worked with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent) and brought in added musicians to explode their sound, with Dave Depper (keys, guitar), Galen Clark (keys) and Congleton contributing percussion along with Angie Boylan (drums). This may be the band’s most layered-sounding album as textures vibrate from the speakers.

The opening “Hell” is the Little Ropes high point as the ominous warbling slowly starts the record while Tucker sings the affecting lyrics softly before the song combusts into a screeching chorus with Tucker soaring on the word “Why” like only she can. The soft/loud combo continues before a galloping midsection leads to a powerful finale as the standout tune wraps up gloriously. 

Another success is “Six Mistakes” which uses overdriven, vibrating guitar and synth to contort layers of buzzsaw sounds that devolve into screeching noise rock halfway through. The band comes out of the maelstrom with a piano line and a catchy melody; a very cool sonic adventure.  

The motoring and clanging “Needlessly Wild” uses distortion but stays melodic, never fully hitting the highs the band did so often in the past, but still puts in a solid effort. The slicing riffs and angular action of “Small Finds” cuts and slashes with effectiveness, while closing rocker “Untidy Creature” is theatrically big and crashing but only manages to lug forward instead of slamming everything home.

The group’s late-career modern pop sounds are present here as well, best showcased on never the neon colored, new wave-influenced, “Say It Like You Mean It” as well as the warbling, synth-overloaded, “Don’t Feel Right”. However, Sleater-Kinney’s dance rock vibes aren’t as effective on “Hunt You Down” which never sinks its teeth in either a rock or dance direction. The album also loses steam towards the end as the dance-pop of “Crusader” could use a percussive energy injection while the overly dramatic “Dress Yourself’ is lyrically touching, but sonically falls in between it all. 

That is exactly where Sleater-Kinney has been since their fantastic 2015 comeback album, No Cities To Love. Brownstein and Tucker have been searching for their next phase after the departure of longtime drummer Janet Weiss. 2019’s modern/industrial/pop misfire The Center Won’t Hold and 2021’s restrained Path of Wellness both felt like half-hearted stabs in newer directions. 

There is no doubt that Little Rope is much more successful than those recent efforts, but it never fully pushes the artists in new directions or completely recaptures the group’s immense past magic. That said, as an outlet for one of the best duos to deal with smothering grief and loss, it is a blessing that it exists at all.

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One Response

  1. I think this review is generally accurate, though I like The Center Won’t Hold more than this reviewer. While different, I think this and their previous album Path of Wellness seem similarly diminished and undistinguished. To me it’s evident they’re missing something since Weiss left. Both albums have a few good to great songs while most sound sort of like generic indie rock in the context of the contemporary musical landscape.

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