Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Sleater-Kinney, Milk Records 2021.
A while ago I reviewed the brilliant 2019 release, The Centre Won’t Hold, from the Oregon feminist band Sleater-Kinney.
That album is still on high rotation in my household and now I have a new album from them to explore.
Sleater-Kinney are songwriters/vocalists/guitarists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein and the band originally formed way back in 1994.
The Centre Won’t Hold was their 10th album and followed on from a long hiatus that lasted from the mid-2000s until 2015.
Since the release of The Centre Won’t Hold, and particularly the beginning of the pandemic, the girls have been busy in the studio and Path of Wellness is the outcome.
This album is the first that they have produced since long-time band member and drummer Janet Weiss departed however it seems to have made little difference to their sound.
Corin and Carrie are talented musicians and usually play all the instruments on their releases and this album contains all the rhythmic punch of their earlier albums.
It’s also the first album that they have entirely produced themselves.
There’s still plenty of the take no prisoners attitude that Sleater-Kinney are known for in tracks like Favourite Neighbour, Shadow Town, and Tomorrow’s Grave.
Musically they are often in creative territory on the edge of alternative /indie/experimental rock.
It’s intelligent and challenging and I love it.
Not that the whole album is out there, if anything the overall feel is less in-your-face than most of their previous stuff. A little more serious and a little less cheeky.
Having said this feminist themes are still present, encapsulated in the track celebrating women, Complex Female Characters, although its more serious and less middle digit than I expected.
Path of Wellness is an album full of great hooks and excellent song writing.
The more you listen to the album the more it presents interesting musical and lyrical paths to follow.
It’s the product of two highly skilled and gifted musicians.
