The new Sleater-Kinney album One Beat has a very strange feeling to it, it’s a lot more harsh than the last three records, but they throw in these little pop touches to the songs that seem weird when they are contrasted with the more severe elements of the songs. Corin’s voice is back to being quite shrill after toning it down a bit on All Hands On The Bad One and The Hot Rock, which I think suits the songs pretty well, but I miss the naunces of songs like the ones on The Hot Rock. Most of the songs seem to claim “Combat Rock” as a genre description, many of them have this very martial sounding beat to them. It’s a bit like “Sleater-Kinney Goes To War”. I like it, but I don’t love it just yet.

You know what I do love?

Douglas Wolk’s Rules For Touring Bands.