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| Sleater-Kinney No Cities To Love Why you'll love it: Insanely cool guitar sounds Why you'll hate it: Some corny lyrics |
The first impression that washed over me in the opening tracks of No Cities To Love are how wonderfully unique the guitars sound. They aren't the loudest, the cleanest, or best performed, but I can't think of anything quite like the effects used here. In the verses to "Price Tag", the guitars sing like violin strings fed through a synthesizer. In the chorus, they transform into a weird, warbly, shambling, pounding riff. It sounds like what you would imagine Night of The Living Dead would look like on an old TV while fiddling with the antenna. Then comes their final form in the bridge. Everything gets gritty and disgusting. The lyrics reach absolute darkness. The effects pedals sound broken or possessed until it's too much and the song just shuts down. "Price Tag" is one fucking - rad - song. I didn't really know what to expect, but it wasn't something like this.
While nothing else quite hits the apocalyptic tone of "Price Tag", guitar experimentation continues throughout No Cities To Love in a whole bunch of different and enjoyable ways. The not quite post-punk hop in "Fangless" is made better with a strange underwater effect in the guitars and arpeggiated play style. "A New Wave" hangs on guitar riffs that are both catchy and dirty as hell. I'd say S-K is drinking Screaming Females' milkshake with riffs like this, but they've probably been making songs like this for decades. Maybe it was their milkshake that got drank, and now they're drinking it back aga- you know this analogy is uninformed, confusing, and getting a bit gross, let's move on. Anyway, S-K was smart to perform "A New Wave" on Letterman, as it's the the most fun and accessible song on the album.
The second half of the album re-explores their dark side. "No Anthems" writhes around in fuzz and a low-voiced delivery reminiscent of Brainiac. "Gimmie Love" is a wicked burst of cynical energy that doesn't overstay its welcome. I get serious Marnie Stern vibes from the cut-throat main riff in "Bury Our Friends", and once again start to wonder who is influencing who...
My only bone to pick with No Cites To Love is that there is sometimes an embarrassing disparity between the mediocrity in a few lyrics and their overconfident delivery. I had this same exact problem with Wild Flag. The choruses of "Surface Envy" and "Hey Darling" are typically sing-songy and obvious in the worst way possible, only magnified when belted with such vigor. It's so jarring that it completely takes me out of the song. In "Surface Envy"s case, it's a shame, because it's an otherwise killer track.
A few corny lines wedge their way in, but the problem is nowhere near as widespread as say, Dave Grohl's modern songwriting. The music steals the show on this album. The innovation that goes into the tone and production is dead on. I don't know if the sound of No Cites is new ground for S-K, or this kind of experimentation goes into all their albums. Bottom line is that I'm impressed.
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