Review: No Cities To Love [Sleater-Kinney]

No Cities To Love- Sleater-Kinney

by: Kitty White

Thank the heavens for 2014 and the year Sleater-Kinney not only reunited but also announced a new album and tour. Now next week we can expect their new album No Cities To Love to sit on our shelves as if there was never a gap between 2006 and 2014. 

No Cities To Love hits hard right out of the gate.  The opening track ‘Price Tag’ let’s us know that this is the Sleater-Kinney we’ve needed all along and if this album came at any other time, it wouldn’t have felt right. No Cities To Love feels so right. Clocking in at a little over a half hour long this album is non-stop track after track. Never is there a lull in energy or creativity.  The title track sitting patiently in the middle of the album has a chorus that has been stuck in my head since the first listen.  The catchiness isn’t the only reason you will remember this album, every single song is a winner. Highlights include ‘Surface Envy’ my new anthem for taking over the world,  ‘Bury Our Friends’ which was the first song teased from the album, and ‘Hey Darling’. Corin, Carrie, and Janet are so on the ball both individually and as a cohesive unit. It could be said that their sound is a little more cleaned up since their early days but it’s not in the same way a lot of popular 90’s bands clean up. Sleater-Kinney are just as gnarly and bad ass as they were 10 or 15 years ago. There is no settling down on No Cities To Love. On ‘New Wave’ Carrie absolutely shreds in a way that makes me question anyone who doubted this reunion was a bad idea. It’s seems that the hiatus has helped these ladies focus more on their musical goal and become the best they can be. Well worth the wait.

Sleater-Kinney have made 2015 their year already just with their existence but this album secures their spot on the throne. Not only have these ladies survived such a solid career years ago, they have come back with a vengeance and an album arguably better than all their previous ones. To start out the new year with such a consistently rocking album should intimidate pretty much everyone else planning on releasing music in the coming months. No Cities To Love is a tough act to follow but I sure hope Sleater-Kinney continue on this path of total face destruction through the power of rock.