Customer Reviews

The Hot Rock

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm glad that a lot of people who have written reviews of "The Hot Rock" are disappointed by it or don't "get it". Sleater-Kinney isn't for everyone but to me there are few bands that are better than them. I don't see S-K filling stadiums or being played at frat parties. They're a small band with a small loyal following and that's fine by me. I have never been a big fan of the so-called "Riot Grrl" movement that S-K emerged from. Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear, et. al. left a bad taste in my mouth. Too narrow-minded and one-dimensional in their approach to music. If you heard one song, you heard them all. This isn't the case with Sleater-Kinney. Somehow they have created music that is both powerful and beautiful. Why people call S-K "punk" is beyond me. I associate punk with primitive, noisy, abrasive sounding music. Sleater-Kinney on the other hand is melodic with each song sounding unique and entrancing. Sure, Corin and Carrie tend to yell a lot of their lyrics instead of "sing" but it works with the music that goes along with it. Their forth album, "The Hot Rock", is an almost perfect album. I listen to it constantly. It's on par with "Dig Me Out", Sleater-Kinney's third and most critically praised album. The only setback for them is the title song, "Hot Rock". But that song is better than the best output of a thousand other bands. That's how good Sleater-Kinney is. For anyone curious as to what S-K is about, I suggest buying "Dig Me Out". After that turns you on to the band, then come back here and marvel at the brillance that is "The Hot Rock".

The first time I heard Sleater-Kinney I was immediately hooked on Corin Tucker's voice, the unbridled yell, so honest and pure indicated that here was a group with something different. When I first played The Hot Rock, I relaxed in the soothing familiar territory I had been exposed to, but this was something different. Dig Me Out was the gates of the minds of these three women, The Hot Rock is the center of that. At first listen, I thought they had proceeded past their prime, but these women are only beginning to realize themselves. Carrie Brownstein's guitar electrifies with precision, Janet's drums keep the songs together, without her the songs would not work. Not only do we get to hear the energy of Corin's voice, but Carrie Brownstein comes in to many songs, often inter-weaving voices, which is so natural that it becomes one whole part, one person alone. Carrie's solo effort on the album, The Size of Our Love, is so brutally honest I only hope she contributes more in later albums. Not only have Sleater-Kinney have grown, and become one whole group, they are now just hitting their stride. This is what music is about, conveying thoughts and actions into sound. Sleater-Kinney do it so brilliantly I am grateful to be able to experience their music, and only hope people will realize that these three women comprise one of the greatest bands of the decade.

I've been a fan from the beginning, and this is my favorite Sleater-Kinney album (though THE WOODS is now vying for the title!). The others always get talked up more than this, arguably their most intimate and painful record. I don't know if it's the production, the lyrics, or the music itself, but this record always feels to me like a secret whispered by your best friend in a dark bedroom late at night and long ago, or a kiss from someone you know you can't hold onto. The technique of Corin and Carrie singing two different lyrics at the same time is in itself a feminist statement -- you cannot pin us down, we are both at once. Although I loved their records before this, THE HOT ROCK is The One that made me fall IN love with them.

Sleater-Kinney has been my favorite band for some time now, and through my exploration of their works I've never been let down by a single album, or a single song. To me, every Sleater-Kinney album is incredible. These women know how to make amazing music, but with The Hot Rock it had something more boiling under its skin. Something about this album resonates with me on every level. Each song just creates this powerful emotional current, a current that will sweep you away to musical bliss. It's hard to determine which Sleater-Kinney albums are better than the others - in my mind they are all untouchable pieces of music, standing all on their own, seprarate from everything else. I have determined though, that The Hot Rock is my favorite of these works, each song as great as the last, filling you with what you've been missing but never knew you lost. This is Sleater-Kinney at their absolute best. This album has changed and saved my life countless times. Listen to this and breathe deeply: This is music as music should be.

When I first bought this cd, I almost foolishly dismissed it as being a disappointing follow-up to Dig Me Out. Thank God for repeated listenings!!! Yes, as some negative reviews have pointed out, the hooks aren't as obvious on this record as Dig Me Out--but they're there all right! I find myself continually mesmerized by the intertwining lyrics, the off-kilter, slightly choppy rhythems, the dueling melody lines. Get Up is a terrific example. One can listen to Get Up for its complexities, yet at the same time one can appreciate it for its pure pop churn.

I read in Punk Planet that the women in SK come into songwriting sessions with pieces of songs and then all of them patch these pieces together into a dazzling sort of quilt. The songs on The Hot Rock reflect this. The off-kilter beats, layered guitar exchanges and intertwining lyrics all somehow work; the women in SK have fashioned a strange kind of musical beast that not only is able to walk, but swagger.

Sleater-Kinney is the future of rock music. Those who complain about the stagnant music scene need only turn their heads west towards the Pacific. Also, as a male listener, I'm not at all abashed to say that some of the finest pop music of the last 5+ years has come from female bands (Bikini Kill's and Heavens to Betsy's Calculated are always close to my CD player). And I get a strange thrill by listening to these female groups that are recording songs aimed primarily at OTHER females! I'm well aware that I'm on the outside looking in, and as much as I love these bands, there's an emotional (dare I use the cliched term "spiritual") connection which I can only imagine--rather than honestly feel--in terms of how these incredible bands must SPEAK to the very riot-punk soul of their female fans. Nevertheless, whether I'm in the loop or cut off from it, I cannot help but listen in, too...and smile!

Jaw-dropping melodies, innovative songwriting topicality, excellent sonic textures and great playing make up Sleater-Kinney's decade-closing effort.

This should be the album that defies the title "punk band" which S-K has been stuck with since its inception. With songs as coherent, musical and strong as "Start Together", "The Hot Rock", "Don't Talk Like", "God Is a Number", "Burn Don't Freeze", "Get Up", "A Quarter to Three"...the two punchlines of this album are the hard-edged "The End of You" (coating a sensitive lyric about rock-star alienation in ear-bending guitar melodies and a hard-hitting but never dull beat) and the lovely, elegiac "The Size of Our Love", beautifully sung by guitarist Carrie Brownstein. Rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Corin Tucker soars to new heights as well; on this record, she reins in her powerhouse vocals from time to time, thus making her moments of complete emotional release all the more powerful. Then there's the ever-reliable, fast-when-she-needs-to-be, slow-when-she-feels-like-it Janet Weiss -- a major component in the engine that made Sleater-Kinney a great band instead of just a really good one.

Vital listening for any rock fan; don't just hear it, own it and relish it. The Hot Rock is a vast, lovely world in its own. I don't usually gush in my record reviews; this one did me in -- every repeated listen yields new treasures.

The title may seem drastic, but you know they deserve it. First off to other reviewers who hear this album once then claim they hate should not be allaowed to review. To review an album to need to listen to it over and over, anylising every aspect, and that is epsecially true for this stunningly complex album.

Track by Track

1 Start Together - A great opener. With some wicked intertwining riffs. Wait till the 0.27 mark, where the guitars crash, and its one of the best moments on the album

2 The Hot Rock - My least favorite song, but that doesnt mean i don't love it. More upbeat them most from this album, yet still as mellow as ever.

3 The End Of You - Very clever lyrics, one of my faves, i think Corins vocals have been a a little bit stronger here though, because i think she couldv'e managed it.

4 Burn, Dont Freeze - this is a trademark s-k song to me. Completly original, with overlapping voices and guitar riffs. Corin makes up for end of you here.

4 God is a Number - the standout feature of this song is Corin screaming GOD IS A NUMBER till she just about explodes.

5 Banned From the End of The world - awesom interweaving guitars here, a staggered guitar line in some parts, its great.

6 Don't Talk Like - different to the rest of the songs, and the chorus has a really unsettling bass line which i absolutly love. Also the line "part of me is dead" is extremely fitting. A great Vocal perfomance.

7 Get Up - may just be the best song in the world. The guitars by themselves are quite simple, but coem togthere they create an extremely rich and complex listen. also fine drumming perormance by janet. I can never quite tell which is Corins guitar and Which is Janets bass drum.

8 One Song for you - has an amazing bridge where Corin just goes off, and even i am inclined to think Where The Hell Did That Come From whenever i hear it.

9 Size of Out Love - haunting and brilliant. a carrie song, which is a nice change of tone for the listener.

10 Living in Exile - strange lyrics, but great song, another classic hot rock song. Chorus is the best bit

11. Memorize These Lines - has four parts to it, whic means it never gets boring. The best bit it Corins Bridge "can u tell me what we;re fighting for". Her voice is quite chilling here.

12 - Quarter to Three - sad ad mellow and fantastically different to everything else. Corin again is amazinglty subtle here, plus i hear a harmonica, which i love.


For the album as a whole, i think the way the guitars interveweave adn play off of each other is breathtaking. I cant beleive these songs were writtain by two different people. It sounds like Carrie's writtain this speactactual riff, then put it a computor which kinda simplifies it, lowers the pitch, jumbles it up a bit, and out comes Corins guitars, its amazing the way the guitars come together.

This is the first album where Corin has shown off the mellowness, and subtleity to her insanley wonderfull voice. I think this is the first time she really tapped into it aside from maybe One More Hour. Not to say shes without her trademark shrieks, like in One Song for You say, but now she mixes it up with beautiful performances all around.

Also Carrie increases her vocalist role, her sweet, low, sugary voice is the perfect counterpart to Corin, and shows it off in Size of Our Love.

I don't think Janet had reached her full potential yet (well None of them had but hey), but her drumming is still fantastic, complex and originial, yet consistant and precise enough to make up for the lack of bassist, which goes completly untoticed in this record, which i think is the first time thyve managed that as a whole album.

Another worthy mention is to the spooky and clever, ironic, lyrics. Very multilayerd, yet still reache out politically, albeit less then other albums. A whole album of poetry

This album is an artistic masterpeice, my new fave s-k album. Dfeintatly greater tha the some of its parts, which go to say, are brilliant in themselves

Brooke

This is by far the most accesible Sleater-Kinney disc yet. If you are the type that likes to hold on to the olden days of "Pour on the power and lighten the load on the pop" (admit it you are, you have the t-shirt, you want to be 20 and slumming through college again, fess up--it's a demon we all have to deal with) then you may be bewitched, bewildered and..um..bequeathed (?) by "The Hot Rock." This fella happens to dig the the thing. While no song matches "One More Hour" from the last CD, "Dig Me Out", songs here, such as "Start Together" and the title track, are some of the most tuneful and rhythmic stuff they've recorded. So maybe it's hard to pound your head against your dormitory wall to this disc, but I'll live (I'm not so sure the scars on my head would ever heal again anyway).

By the release of "The Hot Rock" in '99, it was clear that Sleater-Kinney had arrived at an unprescedentedly intricate sonic asthetic; contrapuntal and angular, yet ferociously contained, thier attack lies in the constant tension between the band's two stellar leads--listening to Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker sing thier often conflicting lines simultaneously is to be privy to a fascinating, constantly evolving relationship, one where the urge to support and celebrate one another is continually challenged by a dynamic in which each little bit of emotional real estate that's offered as a gesture of compromise is burdened with world-historic import. Of coarse, all this staggeringly cerebral conceptual metaphor slinging would be dull as door knobs if it weren't for the band's talent as musicians and songwriters; that S-K can cram enough of this stuff to fullfill several senior thesis requirements into music so gloriously engaging, kinetic, and just plain rockin' is a testament to just how important this band is. Few have operated so proficiently on simultaneous levels of chops, content and execution. As a guitarist, Carrie Brownstein has more chops than Paul Bunyon, creating the most arresting, original guitar sound since Peter Buck or The Edge (or Pete Townshend, or Tom Verlain--pick one, the point is, the woman's GOOD) Rarely playing anything that resembles a traditional riff, her arsenal of quicksilver leads and choppy, percussive arpeggios give S-K's music and incredibly elastic, unpredictable quality the makes their records among the most listenable in rock. Corin Tucker, on the other hand, is mostly voice, but what a voice it is--a riveting, ennervating force of nature that gives visceral physicality and unforgettable conviction to her lyrics. She may have the best set of pipes in rock. Then there's Janet Weiss--not doubt one the best drummers in rock, slamming all this stunning musicianship into orbit with unshakable consistancy. You can hear all this loud and clear on "The Hot Rock", and if this album lacks the breathless rush of thier previous effort, "Dig Me Out", well, that's only disappointing if you expected them to reinvigorate rock twice in a row. On this record, the band intorduces several directions they could go in, and they're all thrilling to contemplate---"Start Together" is a surging anthem, so full to bursting with righteous conviction and sure-footed authority they could sustain an entire album of these(others in this vien include the blistering "God Is A Number", where Corin nearly turns her voice inside-out, and "The End Of You" an impossibly ingenious song that equates navigating the music biz on a tiny, proud indie label with pirates on the open sea.) Contrasting this angle are bracingly subdued songs like the aching "Don't Talk Like", with lines like "there's a part of me/ that works just like a child" aiming strait for the heart strings, and "The Size of Our Love", sung by Carrie, that takes on the tricky subject of love and faithfulness in the face of death with out a hint of cliche or sentitiousness. "Burn, Don't Freeze" is head-spinningly complex, "Banned From The End Of The World" is infectiously bouncy, and "Memorize Your Lines" is stunningly evocative, with a lush bed of cellos and florid, almost gothic atmosphere. "One Song For You" throws a perfect little temper tantrum at the end, with the band revving up behind Corin as she drops the kiss-off line of the century, educated-punk-grrl division: "drop little boy crumbs you could follow back/ when you get lost becoming a man." Ouch, Corin. Very ouch. The other songs that I haven't specifically drooled over are great, as well. Suffice it to say that this record [isn't bad].

Saw them last year in the UK, really thought they were excellent
Just got round to getting this and I have to say that it is brilliant...melodic and intense. Was a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to the live show but it surpassed it...