Customer Reviews

One Beat

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With the return of producer John Goodmanson from the Dig Me Out days, you'd almost expect a home coming to that edgy unpolished sound. Expect better. In fact, there are spots on this album have more raw energy than anything since Call the Doctor, but with all the maturity that the band's developed since The Hot Rock
and All Hands. The sound is much richer, with many more layers than any outing before. In fact, Sleater-Kinney counterpoint begins almost to approach the majesty of a cathedral choir, backed up by its organ. The guitars develop a monolithic wall of sound that cannot be gotten around, and cannot be pierced. This album won't disappoint any Sleater-Kinney fan, no matter what era she may be partial to.

Though you can hear plenty of straight-ahead words and guitar punk rock, there's tons more. Just like everyone rock band in the world, there's a fresh element of electronica, but unlike everyone else, the instrument is a theremin, one of the very first electronic instruments, before the synthesizers now everywhere aro
und the music world. There's an element of soul, especially in the last song Sympathy, which if it weren't for Corin's distinctive voice (a familiar Olympia from the South reminiscent of a Kurt Cobain), you'd almost mistake it for a song from The Gossip.

The impact of September 11th can be obviously felt on this album. "Far Away", which from the Pacific Northwest, New York must have seemed, is an especially piercing reminder of that inexplicable sudden nausea everyone felt that day. You feel it again in the guitar, in an unfamiliar dissonance in the familiar Corin-Carrie counterpoint. Even with a new found patriotism, the classic antiauthoritarianism of punk rock can still be felt with "and the president hides / while working men rush in / to give their lives." While Dan Rather, and all the news networks forgot about the administration's cowardice immediately upon the news of the
attacks, punk rock has not. Compared with the war mongering of the President, unconstitutional detention of 'suspects' and the vote mongering in step marching by the Democrats, the patriotism that Sleater-Kinney sings, "Where is the questioning, where is the protest song / since when is skepticism un-American" in Combat Rock makes it OK to be patriotic in that gut level sense that one feels reluctant to in the face of what it has been used as an excuse for.

With a sudden expansion of the scope of their politics, they don't leave out the personal. While the first two albums were unmediated screams of pain, these songs are cold, calculated revenge. These are deep wounds that have been festering, the ones that no longer occupy your every thought, but are still palpably there. With lines like "Nobody lingers like your hands on my heart / nobody figures like you've figured me out" in Oh, this is up close and personal. My favorite song on the album, though, still has to be Light Rail Coyote. The title enough says everything. It's about urban wildlife. It's about the one that doesn't fit in, but still manages to scrape together an existence. Yet there's this desperation to it, in "Find me on the eve of suicide / Tell me the city is no place to hide." This is your existence too, and mine.I can't say what this album will do as an introduction to the band--I lost that innocence when I fell in love with the band a long time ago. Still, don't miss this one.

Ok here we go again...picture it now...that face of intense disbelief and shock - that "hurts so good" - (like you just tasted a lemon expression) when the new Sleater-Kinney album comes blasting out of the speakers. I'm here to tell you that "One Beat" delivers it like a sugar rush straight to your head, baby. Cuts through all the retro/fashionable rock BS like a knife through butter. If you had any doubts that S-K couldn't hold it down for a SIXTH album straight (SIXTH!) - then prepare to be surprised. What other band's output has been so flawless? It's been a while since the group last dropped "All Hands On The Bad One" and then came the Time magazine feature. The best rock 'n roll band in the world? For the ones who have been with them since Lori was the drummer - that's a surreal experience. Since then, I've moved away from rock and onto more electronica, hip-hop, soul, and jazz in my musical diet - considering my punk rock days dead and gone. It's been a while since I've touched anything with just guitars and drums in two years? But I'll always support S-K because they are the singular punk band of our time that will stand when the dust clears. I got money on it. Ok so let me tell you about this album. It's all there: the jagged guitar interplay, the welps, cathartic screams, and the HOOKS, god help us - the hooks. Then there's dashes of funk horns and synths. Yeah you heard me right. But like the best groups, S-K has a synergy between it's members. The most similiar thing I can think of is like the conversational aesthetic of hip-hop. Corin, Carrie, and Janet are made for each other - you can't fake this. Oh yeah, the songs are ALL good - I could go into them but [what the heck], just buy the album.

Sleater - Kinney have never made a bad album, but fans have been waiting for one as incendiary as their 3rd effort, Dig Me Out, which is now rightly regarded as a 90's classic. Its follow-up, The Hot Rock, was more contemplative and varied, and the group tried out a new producer, Roger Moutenot. It was a mixed success. The songs that retained the band's trademark fiery passion were enjoyable as always, but some songs felt forced or unnecessarily toned-down for the sake of variation. The next record, All Hands On The Bad One, found S-K back with producer John Goodmanson and was more straightforwardly rocking, but some weak moments still persisted. With their sixth album One Beat, fans may finally find a worthy sucessor to the brilliant Dig Me Out. It's not that it sounds like that album at all, but it maintains a similar sense of urgency and passion throughout that has been missing lately.
There are new things to be heard as well...the band is experimenting with keyboards, violin and even a horn section on the raucous "step aside". The political slant that has always set the group apart is stronger than ever, especially on a couple of songs ("faraway" and "combat rock") that address the post 9/11 situation. The latter is especially arresting and provides the centerpiece of the record both musically and emotionally. Carrie Brownstein delivers verses in a clipped, hiccuping tone before Corin Tucker comes in with a typically urgent, wailing chorus as guitars chime, sparkle and crash behind them. The lyrics are among their best, adressing the often misguided patriotism of these times with lines such as "since when is skepticism un-American?/dissent's not treason but they talk like it's the same/those who disagree are afraid to show their face."
Every song on this album is a gem. Whether it proves to be as high, or higher than, "Dig Me Out" on my list remains to be seen, but it's undoubtedly worth every bit of praise it gets. Buy it soon, and you'll even get a two-song bonus disc, including a charming tribute to Tucker's baby boy, with the heartfelt words "I'd like to show you a million things/like to make the world for you a better place." At the very least, these women can be assured they've made today's music scene a better place.

With the return of producer John Goodmanson from the Dig Me Out days, you'd almost expect a home coming to that edgy unpolished sound. Expect better. In fact, there are spots on this album have more raw energy than anything since Call the Doctor, but with all the maturity that the band's developed since The Hot Rock and All Hands. The sound is much richer, with many more layers than any outing before. In fact, Sleater-Kinney counterpoint begins almost to approach the majesty of a cathedral choir, backed up by its organ. The guitars develop a monolithic wall of sound that cannot be gotten around, and cannot be pierced. This album won't disappoint any Sleater-Kinney fan, no matter what era she may be partial to.

Though you can hear plenty of straight-ahead words and guitar punk rock, there's tons more. Just like everyone rock band in the world, there's a fresh element of electronica, but unlike everyone else, the instrument is a theremin, one of the very first electronic instruments, before the synthesizers now everywhere aro
und the music world. There's an element of soul, especially in the last song Sympathy, which if it weren't for Corin's distinctive voice (a familiar Olympia from the South reminiscent of a Kurt Cobain), you'd almost mistake it for a song from The Gossip.

The impact of September 11th can be obviously felt on this album. "Far Away", which from the Pacific Northwest, New York must have seemed, is an especially piercing reminder of that inexplicable sudden nausea everyone felt that day. You feel it again in the guitar, in an unfamiliar dissonance in the familiar Corin-Carrie counterpoint. Even with a new found patriotism, the classic antiauthoritarianism of punk rock can still be felt with "and the president hides / while working men rush in / to give their lives." While Dan Rather, and all the news networks forgot about the administration's cowardice immediately upon the news of the
attacks, punk rock has not. Compared with the war mongering of the President, unconstitutional detention of 'suspects' and the vote mongering in step marching by the Democrats, the patriotism that Sleater-Kinney sings, "Where is the questioning, where is the protest song / since when is skepticism un-American" in Combat Rock makes it OK to be patriotic in that gut level sense that one feels reluctant to in the face of what it has been used as an excuse for. In an act of Sheer bravado, their nationwide tour will start on September 11th.

With a sudden expansion of the scope of their politics, they don't leave out the personal. While the first two albums were unmediated screams of pain, these songs are cold, calculated revenge. These are deep wounds that have been festering, the ones that no longer occupy your every thought, but are still palpably there. With lines like "Nobody lingers like your hands on my heart / nobody figures like you've figured me out" in Oh, this is up close and personal. My favorite song on the album, though, still has to be Light Rail Coyote. The title enough says everything. It's about urban wildlife. It's about the one that doesn't fit in, but still manages to scrape together an existence. Yet there's this desperation to it, in "Find me on the eve of suicide / Tell me the city is no place to hide." This is your existence too, and mine.I can't say what this album will do as an introduction to the band--I lost that innocence when I fell in love with the band a long time ago. Still, don't miss this one.

...and I really didn't think that was possible.

This is a spiky, snarky, angry little album, just as punk is supposed to be, but it's also all about the love of life and the refusal to settle for mediocrity in romance or politics or anything else. As always, Corin's voice is not for everyone, though I consider it one of the most spectacular instruments ever to make it onto a CD. And, Oh! -- to steal the title of track 3, which is this album's shamelessly cute, infectious followup to Dig Me Out's "Dance Song '97" -- the melodies, the harmonies, the passion, and that way they have with multiple simultaneous vocal lines to which nobody else out there can quite hold a candle...it's all just plain good. There are a few tracks that I could do without (cough Prisstina cough), but overall, these three women have never been more appealing or less ignorable.

"One Beat" isn't exactly a departure for veteran indie rock trio Sleater-Kinney. But that's not exactly a bad thing.

The band still plays through multiple time signatures with ease, gets lost in excitedly sparse guitar chords and beat on brat drum rolls, and Corrin Tucker still thrusts her voice out front like Patti Smith in an earthquake. But what makes them different-and what has always made them different-is that they resemble less their peers than they do fellow ground-breaking bands like The Talking Heads, The Clash, and Devo. In fact, upon first listen someone asked candidly, "Rush?"

The title track suggests the mechanism for the music. Lines like, "take me to the source of chaos / let me be the butterfly / imperfect symmetry has underlining poetry and rhyme," provide a perfect description of the band's sound-part beauty, melody and pop, and part beastly comedowns and sonic franticism. Sure the base of their sound is still formulaic power pop, but between those lines exist full-on Beach Boy breakdowns complete with crystal clear harmonies, soaring keyboard driven choruses worthy of The Cars, and an endless amount of unraveling guitars. Add to that, the expanded sound provided by keys, theremin, trumpet, and string section, and you've got something far beyond the usual punk-pop girl group.

The lyrics, usually either warbled by Tucker, or purred by fellow guitarist Carrie Brownstein, range from the dismally personal ("nobody lingers like your hand on my heart") to the sarcastically nationalistic ("if you love your country, go out and spend some cash") to the clean universal ("why can't I get along?").

Still the issues addressed are genuine, and are sung with an unfailing passion. "Since when is skepticism un-American?" questions the sardonically post 9-11 "Combat Rock." "Her only job was to not grow old," declares "Hollywood Ending," and "I've got this curse on my tongue / all I taste is rust," confesses the exquisite closer, "Sympathy."

Those kind of lyrics alone would be enough to lift most band beyond any state of normalcy. But the overall consistency of their music, the sheer originality, and the impassioned approach is what made Sleater-Kinney a household name among indie rock enthusiasts in the first place. And there's certainly nothing on "One Beat" to call that crown into question.

Although several songs make reference to September 11th, the most interesting thing about this album is the range of the music. There's great R&B on "Step Aside" (along with horns!), loud, heavy metal thunder on "Light Rail Coyote", surf music that would make the Go-Go's jealous on "O2", and a blistering blues song in "Sympathy". Some of this works better than others, but what does work will simply blow you away. Hopefully, Sleater-Kinney fans will appreciate just how daring this album really is. Oh, and there are several references to Corin Tucker's son, including a photo in the liner notes and a beautiful lullaby ("Lions and Tigers") on the CD single extra that comes with the limited edition of One Beat.

It's exciting to think that "One Beat" could be evidence that Sleater-Kinney are only just hitting their stride. Their previous record, though occasionally brilliant, was overall a diluted, sweetened affair, weighed down by self-consciousness; but on One Beat, Sleater-Kinney prove that sophistication and maturity don't necessarily amount to artistic death.
"One Beat" is pretty much as close to a perfect record as anyone could ask for, effortlessly moving between musical genres - punk, blues, a bit of soul here, a bit of girl-group silliness there, all branded with the trademark Sleater-Kinney style - and dense with humour and ideas, excitedly jumping from political invective ("Combat Rock", which is sadly becoming more and more urgent and relevant every time I hear it) to quirky tales of studious, proper girls being seduced by Prince Charmings at punk rock clubs "Prisstina", to straightforward heart-break in addictive rockers like "O2" and "The Remainder", to the blazing closing track about motherhood, "Sympathy."
The only complaint I could make is that it's too perfect, too polished - which is a ridiculous criticism anyway. I do miss the rough edges and danger of their earlier albums a little. Still, I can't emphasize just how addictive this record is - it's rarely been out of my CD player for months now. Just buy it.

Sleater-Kinney has created a near-masterpiece; I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. I still say "near" because I think they will be band that will make an album that will flat out destroy everything that is wrong with the music industry today. (First of all, why is it an "industry"?) One Beat doesn't quite do it, but it's close. It is just under 40 minutes long, but it contains everything that life can possibly have; joy, sadness, sex, death, anger, love, determination and will, spirituality, and the list goes on and on. You can also make a huge list of influences that some reviewers have pointed out: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Aretha Franklin, Go-Gos, X-Ray Spex, even Patsy Cline or Neko Case. Some may think the album "copies" these other musicians; I prefer to think of this album as an homage to them.

Oh, yeah, the music is awesome too. Like most Sleater-Kinney albums, it takes quite awhile to adjust to. I've owned One Beat since August, and only in the past couple of weeks have I started liking the song "Combat Rock," and now it's one of my favorite songs on the album, same with "Light Rail Coyote." This is new, this is different, and yet still looks back on the past with admiration. Give it some time if you buy it. Just think what people must of thought after they put the needle down on Revolver or Trout Mask Replica for the first time. One Beat isn't going to change rock music forever like those albums, but the same spirit of innovation and love of making good music is here. And it RAWKS!!!

Lastly, if I had my druthers, the title track of this album, not "We Will Rock You," would be played at sports events all over the world.

Ok, so it seems to me like there are two camps of SK fans. There are those who have followed them for years and been apart of the whole Riot Girl/Kill Rock Stars Label/Olympia rock scene and then there are those who haven't. I for one have only gotten into Sleater-Kinney in the last year and a half. That being said, old school SK fans (like some of my friends) hate this album. They pine for the days of "All Hands on the Bad One" or "Call the Doctor". I guess since I'm in the newbie category really like it a lot. It takes a few listens but the unique vocal tracks combined with some great instrumentals makes this cd a great find. I admit that the vocals take some getting used to but that's one of the aspects that makes this band great. Every single song is good and I guess this album is like "The Rising" for people under 30. I can relate to this and the political commentary unlike Bruce's latest. I would definitely recommend this album to any thinking person who likes to be challenged in an unconvential way.

*Note* Sleater-Kinney is touring the country now opening up for Pearl Jam and I recommend seeing them live. They put on a great show here in San Antonio and played a lot of stuff from this album!