For any band, shifting genres or maneuvering between sub-genres always comes with risk and periods of difficulty with new approaches and audience engagement. Sleater-Kinney’s recent post-reunion career run has demonstrated as many problems as successes over the past decade, but their spirit endures with their eleventh studio album, Little Rope. Throughout this period of newness, loss, and persisting onward, this beloved group has come out the other side with more worthwhile music to give to the world.
Sleater-Kinney’s Career Flux and Divided Output Leading to ‘Little Rope’
Almost exactly nine years ago, the dual-vocal, dual-guitar force of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein ended a decade of sonic absence with No Cities to Love, another vital instant classic from an already great indie-punk trio. Since this hailed return, the losses have outweighed the gains in Sleater-Kinney’s history. Longtime drummer Janet Weiss’ exit overshadowed the march into new territory of The Center Won’t Hold, and the transitional, muted Path of Wellness showed the sudden duo unable to handle their new post-punk ideas.
Fortunately, Little Rope makes the transition come back full circle. Even with a roaring opening track, this 2024 release demonstrates a preference for mood, substance, dynamics, and texture that have outweighed traditional punk approaches in the modern post-punk movement. While Tucker and Brownstein’s attempt at alluring quietude through a Sleater-Kinney lens sometimes sags in lesser songs, many of the songs pay off as a testament to fusing progressive songwriting with knowing what works in your group dynamic. The singles stand out the most, but “Needlessly Wild” and “Don’t Feel Right” beautifully exhibit Little Rope’s modus operandi.
Grief Haunts ‘Little Rope’ for Carrie Brownstein
Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney / Shutterstock
As is tradition for the last five years of Sleater-Kinney, the band’s tragedies sadly once again take the spotlight. Brownstein’s parents died unexpectedly during the making of Little Rope, informing how the songs ended up sounding to the performers and listeners alike. With this knowledge, one cannot help but hear a fragmented vision for the new record, clouding the band’s intentions for returning fresh after the disappointing Path of Wellness with John Congleton as a new producer and Loma Vista as a new label. As a result, things do not always click on Little Rope, but Sleater-Kinney finished it with an evident drive and purpose.
Sleater-Kinney Subtly Say They Are Still a Force to Be Reckoned With
Like with many complex emotions, making and listening to music can considerably aid in processing grief and healing, and Sleater-Kinney’s career rollercoaster through the 2010s and 2020s exemplifies a band has not started drifting into nothingness, as Path of Wellness’ lack of substance seemed to indicate. For perhaps the first time since the early days that spoke to a united outsider group of indie listeners, Sleater-Kinney used their new music on Little Rope to purge the feelings that only music can describe.
“Untidy Creature” ends Little Rope with a mixed feeling of hope and dread in the suffocation of existence – as you read this through the view of Sleater-Kinney’s discography, it is another track built on discontent with the world and the necessity of breaking constraints through music. If Tucker and Brownstein return to focus their new sounds next time around, Little Rope might be the pathway to another top-tier album.
Little Rope is streaming now wherever you listen to music.