Sleater-Kinney reformed in 2014 after eight years away. In this time apart, the band's reputation and legacy grew and grew - a reputation which was pretty decent to begin with: critic Greil Marcus, who knows a thing or two about the subject, declared them "America's best rock band" in 2001. Their near-faultless back catalogue got the grand Sub Pop reissue treatment last year, but Sleater-Kinney don't seem to pay Nostalgia much mind. Comeback album No Cities To Love is a fiery, vital sounding record, and live shows have been rapturously received by music writers (five stars pretty much across the board) and fans, new and old, alike.
"Let's destroy a room with this love"
They were certainly sensational when I saw them at the ABC in March: energy, personality, tight-but-not-too-tight musicianship, and songs with more hooks than the world's largest fishing tackle convention. I listened to No Cities To Love a lot upon release but have rarely returned to it since, perhaps lacking the depth and intrigue of something like 2005's The Woods. Many of the tunes are terrific, though, including "A New Wave" which has long been pencilled in as the opener of my Choice Tracks of 2015 playlist (up on the blog at the weekend).
"No outline will ever hold us"
I like to think that this lyric was the inspiration for the single's completely kick-ass promo video, as the band members' personalities - all wild, shaking heads, hyperactive fretboard work and triumphant mid-solo jump kicks - really do burst out of their cartoon selves and out of the screen. "Even when animated, Janet Weiss is a bad-ass drummer", as one YouTube commenter correctly points out.
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