No Cities to Love

I have all of Sleater-Kinney's albums, so when I heard they were releasing their first album in ten years, No Cities to Love, I, like many rock geeks, was giddy. I have listened to it for about two weeks solid and it's absolutely fantastic.

Sleater-Kinney just might be the best rock band of the last twenty years--they certainly are the best thing that emerged from the riot grrl movement. They formed in the Seattle area some twenty years ago, and found great success in the college rock area, without ever really breaking into the mainstream--my guess is they have never headlined an arena or stadium.

Their sound is pounding post-punk, toe-tapping hooks, great guitar licks, over-enunciated vocals, and superlative drumming. They are a power trio, without use of a bass. Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein are on guitars, Janet Weiss on drums.

No Cities to Love has ten cuts, and each one is a gem. There are a few that are classics, such as the title track, which lyrically reminds me of Talking Heads "Cities," and seems to be from the same notion--we choose where we live for subconscious reasons:

"There are no cities, no cities to love
It's not the cities it's the weather we love"

"Price Tag" appears to be about working in box stores like Wal-Mart:

"We never really checked
We never checked the price tag
When the cost comes in
It's gonna be high
We love our bargains
We love the prices so low
With the good jobs gone
It's gonna be raw."

The songwriting is credited to the band as a whole--interestingly, the name of the band members are nowhere to be found in the liner notes. They have always leaned left and feminist, though, and exhibit a rebellious spirit, even as they edge into middle age. In "Surface Envy" the refrain is:

"We win, we lose, only together do we break the rules
We win, we lose, only together do we make the rules"

My second favorite track is "A New Wave." I'm not sure if this is a linguistic references to the music scene in the 1970s, which certainly must have inspired the group. But it's a powerful song:

"Let's destroy a room with this love
We can drain out all the power
Steal from the makers who unmade us
Leave them nothing to devour
I am raw material, make me plastic make me fuel
I can be, I can be, I can be"

It's early, but this might be the best album of 2015.