Perhaps it was inevitable that
Sleater-Kinney
would reunite. They parted ways in 2006 claiming that it was a hiatus, not a dissolution, thereby leaving the door open for a comeback -- a comeback that arrived nearly ten years after the group faded away. Smartly,
don't pick up the threads left hanging by the knotty, roiling
The Woods
. They acknowledge the decade they spent apart, a decade where all three members pursued very different paths:
Corin Tucker
turned toward domesticity then founded her own punk-blues band, drummer
Janet Weiss
played with
Stephen Malkmus
before re-teaming with
Carrie Brownstein
in
Wild Flag
, an indie supergroup that provided
Brownstein
a breather from her newfound fame as a television star. In short, all three spent ten years living their lives and those lives can be felt throughout
No Cities to Love
, a record that neatly balances urgency and maturation. Purposefully short -- the album weighs in at barely over a half-hour -- and conspicuously bereft of slow songs (the slow churn of the closing "Fade" is the only contender),
feels breathless but it also finds room to breathe. Previously when
stretched out musically, they were assisted by an outside producer -- they hired
Roger Moutenot
for
The Hot Rock
,
Dave Fridmann
-- but here, they reunite with producer
John Goodmanson
, who helmed every other one of the trio's records, and that familiarity is a key to the success to
.
worked on these ten songs over the course of two years, deliberately ditching songs that recalled the past ("Hey Darling" comes closest to evoking the old rush), a move that often results in complex syncopated rhythms (more than the group flirt with a disco-rock pulse) and rich, multi-layered melodic hooks in the guitars and vocals. It's a bright, openhearted call to arms, an antidote to
, and a furious and cloistered record that found the band retreating whenever they decided to look on the outside world. Which isn't to say
Tucker
and
are happy with the state of affairs in 2015:
attacks contemporary politics as directly as
One Beat
did in 2002, teaming with anger, anxiety, and unresolved questions. Despite this internal tension, the first and lasting impression of
is one of joy, a joy that emanates from a group who realized the purpose and pleasure of being in a band during their extended absence. [
was also released on LP.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine