Fluxblog
June 14th, 2021 4:42pm

Call Your Cure A Candy


Sleater-Kinney “Path of Wellness”

Sleater-Kinney are in an unenviable position in their career where if things had not changed for them musically whatever they released would be “ah, ok, another Sleater-Kinney record, sure whatever” since the novelty of their return had already been played out. But then, of course, when they changed things up musically they ended up losing Janet Weiss as their drummer and so Path of Wellness arrives buried in the context of her absence.

Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein are talented enough to carry a record on their own – they did make their first two albums without Weiss, after all – but it’s still very hard to hear Path without thinking of what would be different or the same if she had stuck around. Having spent some time with the album I’m inclined to say it probably would’ve been mostly the same with Janet, particularly as the drummers on the record play in a fairly similarly muscular and fill-heavy style. In some ways that comes as a relief and in others it’s disappointing, as the new songs are neither a jump into totally new territory they couldn’t have explored without Weiss or, if you’re a Weiss partisan, proof that they can’t be a good band without her.

“Path of Wellness,” a song built around a clangy busy rhythm and a distorted bass groove, is the track that moves furthest from the band’s established aesthetics with Weiss. It’s also maybe not coincidentally the best and most exciting song on the record. “Path” pulls off an interesting trick of sounding unlike any previous Sleater-Kinney song while also tapping into a loose, atmospheric quality I don’t think they’ve had since The Hot Rock came out over 20 years ago. There’s no effort put into thickening the sound here, the starkness of the clatter and buzz is the point. Tucker’s voice, always the most unique and exciting aspect of the band, is at the center of the track. She’s not fully cutting loose here, but she does work through a lot of her best vocal tricks as the song moves from sly, winking verses towards a classic S-K climax in which Brownstein’s snaky riffs and Tucker’s raw emoting weave around until they converge at just the right cathartic moment.

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