Sleater-Kinney ask, ‘War: What is it good for?’

Sleater-Kinney

One Beat

Kill Rock Stars

… Sleater-Kinney

One Beat

Kill Rock Stars

Sleater-Kinney seems incapable of making a bad record. Ever since their breakout 1997 release Dig Me Out made them the new face of femme punk, the trio releases one solid record after another.

One Beat, the band’s sixth album, is no exception; In fact, it’s the group’s most distinguished record to date. They’ve refined their sound, but haven’t lost the energy and youth that they built their name on. Lead vocalist Corin Tucker has never had more passion in her vibrato, and her lyrics have never been more poignant.

The time that’s passed since 2000’s All Hands on the Bad One was a transitional period for the band. Between the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the birth of Tucker’s child, Sleater-Kinney appears to have a lot of built-up emotion and frustration that explodes on One Beat.

On the album’s opening title track, Tucker proclaims, “If I’m to run the future/you’ve got to let the old world go.” Pleading for change in a world stuck in the past, she asks, “Can I turn this place all upside down/And shake you and your fossils out?” Backed by a combative marching beat, this song makes it sound like Sleater-Kinney is heading off to war. And they are.

While “Far Away” recalls the terror and anxiety of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, “Combat Rock” questions blind patriotism of the event’s aftermath, asking, “Where is the questioning? Where is the protest song? Since when is skepticism un-American?”

Though Sleater-Kinney’s politics run rampant on One Beat, their soft side seeps through as well: They are more confessional, contemplative and earnest than ever. “Hollywood Ending” and “Sympathy” are both heartfelt messages towards Tucker’s loved ones, reflections on the vulnerability of adoration and fear of abandonment.

One Beat is a bold record, one that never ceases to put controversial issues on the table. It’s a megaphone in the face of a society that’s afraid to speak up. It must be heard.