All Hands on the Bad POLL - Sleater Kinney

not didactic. dogmatic. maybe both. i don't know. those are things i like.

every s-k album has some lyrical clunkers, it doesn't in my mind have anything to do with feiminism.

like "combat rock" is unsophisticated and didactic about a different topic; it was kind of their thing at times.

yeah i do like "leave you behind!"

i didn't mean to overgeneralize, mostly i mean those three albums totally kick ass at the beginning and then kinda lose steam

nothing on this album as bad as "Entertain"

yeah, the woods is the album where that dogmatic strain in sleater-kinney kind of curdles for me. but, like, the "disassemble your discrimination" backup vocals in "step aside" are totally adorable to me.

but some people seem really fond of the woods so maybe i should give it another try.

'leave you behind' and 'you're no rock n roll fun' were so huge on local college radio. this was the first one after the hiatus so i was just super happy they were back but also this weird mix of disappointed they didn't take another step forward after hot rock while also suprised and happy they had made such a straightforwardly fun and vaguely pop record. if someone asked me what their best is i'd say dig me out everytime but i think i'm more likely to actually listen to this one or hot rock. voted 'ironclad'. now going to go listen to a fuckload of s-k. despite everything i still love you carrie brownstein.

Wild Flag were terrific at Pitchfork btw

lyrically The Woods is full of dross but it's such a fun visceral listen that I kinda don't care

is i'd say dig me out everytime but i think i'm more likely to actually listen to this one or hot rock. voted 'ironclad'. now going to go listen to a fuckload of s-k.

after "Entertain" and her NPR columns we had what amounted to a lover's spat. It's all good now.

ohhhh maybe it's because it's poppy that i always hear people disliking this record.

not sure i get what makes it more poppy than the other sk albums between dig me out and the woods?

my only musical issue with sk is that they should be super tight and kinda aggro all the time but they wrote a lot of aimless, noodley songs.

haha what?

song lengths only started to creep beyond four minutes on One Beat!

something like the verses of #1 must have, for example--all choppy with these little single-note guitar parts. not really pleasant to listen to at all.

yeah it's not really a song length issue, it's kind of a *guitar player* criticism. sometimes i wish they had a bassist.

yes i have often wished they had a bassist. love and just voted for #1 must have, though. i don't know how to talk about music but the choppy guitar suits the verses imo.

cause she's kind of spitting the words out. maybe that's too on-the-nose, i don't know.

yeah that seems true, just not really my thing

"Was It A Lie?" is harrowing, brilliant, and the sleeper on this album.

something like the verses of #1 must have, for example--all choppy with these little single-note guitar parts. not really pleasant to listen to at all.

Disagree. It's like winding up a toy car that gets let go during the refrain at the end and speeds across the floor! Delayed gratification.

When this came out I liked it a lot but thought it was a step down from Dig Me Out and The Hot Rock. Still pretty much feel the same way, though I also like it better than the albums after it.

Voted "Youth Decay" because it's their last real punk song, and I liked punky S-K. But "Rock n Roll Fun" was a great single, and there are a bunch of other good songs.

loved it at the time, but this is really where the slipped into the self-satisfied, "four stars either way" phase imo. Still have "AHOTBO," "The Professional," "Was It A Lie?" "Leave You Behind" and "The Swimmer", though I'm not sure what I'd vote for - more apt to listen to them when I'm in an S-K mood and put everything on shuffle than pull out any individual track. While I prefer this album to the two that followed, I don't like anything as much as "Oh," "Step Aside" or "Rollercoaster".

I remember being pretty disappointed by this; it felt like "You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun" + 12 b-sides. I saw them on this tour, and they seemed to dislike each other, themselves, and the audience. Not sure what the deal was, since by all accounts their shows were fearsome. By contrast, One Beat felt like some renewed-sense-of-purpose shit, and that show may as well have happened at Leeds University in early 1970.

obv not a perfect reference point since nobody got fired and nobody signed to a major, etc etc etc but I can't help but think of the replacements in the sense that things got a little wonky when the little band of fuck-ups became self-aware indie heroes on the fence about chasing bigger commercial game.

haha though opening for pearl jam def = opening for tom petty in this sense

I think they started going to a therapist as a group after this one + Corin's first baby.

They were awesome even playing outdoor arenas (which diluted their sound a bit) and stuck with Pearl Jam's neanderthal fans. One guy in front of us muttered, "Who are these dikes?"

just listened to this, not as bad as i remembered but i still dont really like it in general

in no particular order i do like

youth decay
you're no rock n roll fun
the professional
leave you behind
the swimmer

but they prob wouldnt stand out on any of s-ks other albums imo

milkshake n honey is such a weird blend of compelling and cringeworthy on like a line-to-line basis

Voted for YNR&RF but maybe it should've been Leave you behind

i don't totally remember how all of these go (haven't listened to this album in a few years) but i'm leaning towards "youth decay"

i have the YNRNRF 7" iirc but can't remember anything about the b-side "maraca"

my memory sucks!

"pompeii" still pops up into my head every now and again tho - BABY DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP ON ME NOW

Personally speaking, I just don't care for the poppiness of the record so much, though what CAD sez,

all choppy with these little single-note guitar parts

... is something I hear throughout a lot of their records, and which to me sounds like unfinished songwriting, and I suppose that this album feels like it has the highest concentration of the uncooked songs.

My ambivalence definitely doesn't have to do with the lyrical content, because when horseshoe sez that AHOTBO is the feminist album, I was all, "Aren't they all feminist?" (Which is to say, I almost never pay close attention to lyrics.)

It gets the "feminist" tag moreso because it was the bands response to Woodstock '99 and the Mook Rock explosion the previous two years.

voted the swimmer after listening one more time. solid s-k top to bottom - not my fave of theirs and don't get some of the lyrics but i'm prejudiced and think they could do no wrong

I think "Leave You Behind" is one of their prettiest/saddest breakup songs, up there with "Good Things" and "One More Hour."

this was the first SK i heard, so i've played it to death and almost never put it on anymore. but 'youth decay' still sounds intense and kind of scary every time i hear it.

i was "getting over" grindcore and hardcore and shit for the first time when this came out, and i played it to death, and i don't understand why no one likes "Ironclad."

that and "Youth Decay" I remember every note and lyric, otherwise, this record is kind of blank for me.

i miss sleater-kinney y'all

― horseshoe, Saturday, July 28, 2012 9:14 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this may not be the best sleater-kinney record but who cares - they are p great (bar the first one).

youth decay, #1 must have, leave you behind, ironclad, the professional, male model, milkshake and honey - any record with these songs on them will be one of the best records ever

am honestly not trying to start anything, but is part of the reason people don't like this album that the lyrics are sort of bluntly/resentfully feminist in a lot of cases? like, either people perceive it as unsophisticated or didactic or something?

I've been thinking about this a lot, and personally I don't think the problem is that they're "bluntly feminist" per se. There are plenty of feminist politics in the previous albums, but there were also higher emotional stakes. They were older, they weren't going through an internal break-up, they knew they had successfully become Joey Ramones to a considerable fanbase. That kind of post-success what-now is a lucky problem to have, but I know it's not fair to ask a band to stay in an emotionally intense blitz-or-tears state. There are still solid songs here, and I don't think it's unloveable at all (I realize "#1 Must Have" won't live or die by the pace for everybody) but I think preferring the album that starts "they want to socialize you/they want to purify you" and gives track 11 to "I'm Not Waiting" over the album that starts with "Eye cream and thigh cream, how 'bout a get-high cream?" and gives track 11 to "Milkshake'n'Honey" isn't really a political thing.

now that you've written the lyrics out to both songs it's impossible to think they weren't always "political."

all bands are political; in SK's case it's how literally they want to grapple with identity and sexuality as people and as members of a female rock band. It changes a bit when they start to use grad school jargon.

da croupier's Replacements reference up above is otm in the sense that the more they obviously thought about what they were doing, the more obviously thought-out it all became. Which shows up more in the lyrics than the tunes, with the result that some of the stuff on the later records actually seems less sophisticated than something like "Joey Ramone," because it's all so spelled-out.

(Though to be fair even on Dig Me Out, you've got the cringingly clunky "Heart Factory." They were always prone to an embarrassing line or two.)

yeah, i wasn't sure exactly how to characterize what i perceive as a political difference between ahotbo and the earlier albums; it's not like there's a s-k album that's neutral on feminist politics. i guess i feel like the earlier albums are more personal. and i do think the voice on ahotbo is sometimes resentful--this tendency would reach its apotheosis with "modern girl" on the woods imo. i am often resentful, so i vibe to it, but i wondered if it might be offputting to dudes.

sort of a separate issue from lyrical clunkers which, i agree, show up on all their albums

You needn't worry about that.

You think Dig Me Out is the best one to dive in with?

Yes. Or One Beat. CTD is marvelous but as a first timer you need to hear their power when they boasted a real drummer.

SK is responsible for my first Chicago trip: a pair of shows in October 2002.

Oh we were at the same show then!

Thursday or Friday?

Don't remember -- it was 10 years ago!

I voted for "The Professional," btw. Kind of a throwaway, but I love it.

You think Dig Me Out is the best one to dive in with?

― Clarke B., Tuesday, July 31, 2012 10:11 AM (56 minutes ago

oh hell yes, it's fantastic

Agree with Dig Me Out as well.

Clark B, you may not utlimately end up loving them, but SK never let their beliefs etc. get in the way of rocking and having fun, it just wasn't all about rocking and having fun. Lots of non-political enjoyment to be had for sure.

on a side note, when i was in olympia recently, my boyfriend kept pointing out to me the sleater-kinney street signs and laughing at me on the bus and i was all "SHUT THE FUCK UP SLEATER KINNEY WERE AN AWESOME BAND"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

You think Dig Me Out is the best one to dive in with?

fnarf

Voted for "Youth Decay" just over "Milkshake n Honey." Already having second thoughts.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Fill our Christmas socks with whiskey drinks and chocolate bars.

think i never voted but just had a good xperience driving fast to 'youth decay' so +1 4 that

"The Swimmer" is the only track I can't recall.

The new Corin Tucker song is pretty awesome, guys. It's about some Oregon beach town and people having sex. I'm into it.

there can't be too many songs about that

I finally got around to listening to this album again today and it is way better than I remember it being. I can't even remember why I didn't like it when it came out. Maybe I thought it was too poppy? My loss I guess. Would probably have voted Youth Decay.

*pulling out album*

all hands on the album

i didn't know people considered this one a dud

i like it

Yeah, idgi. There's not a bad song on it. Over time, it's actually become my favorite S-K lp.