Sleater-Kinney Roar Back to Life
After a swerve into synth-pop, the beloved punk rockers sound born again
After a swerve into synthpop, the beloved punk rockers sound born again.
Sleater-Kinney Path of Wellness Mom + Pop ★★★★✰
Sleater-Kinney are back to their old tricks, which means trying out some new tricks. The Pacific Northwest punks grabbed the world’s imagination with the 1996 riot-grrrl bombshell Call the Doctor, but ever since, they’ve refused to repeat themselves. Everything about their new album is outside their zone, starting with the title: Path of Wellness. It’s the first album they’ve made as a duo — the band is down to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker after a painful and public split with longtime drummer Janet Weiss.
On Path of Wellness, Sleater-Kinney sound as though they figured there was no way to get back to normal, so they might as well get as weird as possible.
SLEATER- KINNEY
No matter how long you’ve been a fan, you’ll hear plenty to startle you here. As they sing together in “Worry With You,” “Let’s get lost, baby, and take a wrong turn.”
But that’s always been a credo for this band. Back in the Nineties, fans got outraged when Dig Me Out didn’t sound like Call the Doctor, just as they got outraged when The
Hot Rock didn’t resemble either. That restless spirit carried the threesome to their 2005 sign off, The Woods, where they blew up into a raging jam band. After a 10-year hiatus, they returned with the triumphant comeback No Cities to Love. But their last album, The Center Won’t Hold, was their most divisive move ever — a slick synth-pop detour that sounded far more like their producer, St. Vincent’s Annie Clark. The makeover wasn’t just polarizing for fans — it ripped the band apart.
As songwriters, Tucker and Brownstein are in much stronger shape here. “Path of Wellness” kicks off the album with gooey synths, Talking Heads/B-52’s-style percussion, and the chant “I’m on a path of wellness.” Brownstein’s excellent “Method” is a moodily vulnerable plea, where she admits, “I’m singing about love, and it sounds like hate.”
“Shadow Town” is the first Sleater-Kinney song where it sounds like they’ve been listening to loads of Steely Dan, ending with a groovy Fender Rhodes electric-piano solo. The Steely influence runs surprisingly deep. At times, Brownstein’s guitar channels Denny Dias to the point where you expect her to break into “Your Gold Teeth II.” “Tomorrow’s Grave” is a prog-metal grinder. “High in the Grass” starts off sounding nothing like Sleater-Kinney — more like Joan Baez replacing Ric Ocasek in the Cars — until Tucker finally unleashes her roof-raising wail for the chorus.
But for the most part, Tucker and Brownstein get down to brass tacks emotionally — they spend this album pleading for love and tenderness. They’re not going for rock anthems or fist-pumping power chords.
The finale, “Bring Mercy,” is Tucker praying for human kindness to save the day, with an Eighties pop sheen in the mode of Pat Benatar. On Path of Wellness, Sleater-Kinney sound like they’re regrouping after a period of loss and isolation, taking stock of what remains. And in 2021, they’re not the only ones.