Review: Sleater-Kinney – The Woods

Someone once said that all rock music is just bad poetry set to a catchy tune. I confess I still feel it rings true an awful lot nowadays, however I’ve always thought that this was still a somewhat unfair call and one that misses the full picture of what rock music is about. Sleater-Kinney’s The Woods is proof that that isn’t all that rock music is and can be. It’s loud, it’s aggressive, it’s smart and is one that demands you take in the full picture.

Everything complements everything else here. The loud guitars perfectly play around and highlight the vocal performances. These in turn do perfect justice to the smart lyrics, which are oftentimes vicious to the point where the words seem to snarl up at you on the page. The drums are hit with enough force to shatter bricks, a requirement it would seem to propel these powerful songs forward. It all comes at you so hard, so fast that by the end, like with any good hard hitting and quality consistent album, you will feel spent and satisfied.

As loud as is the songs are intricately crafted and thought out. The interplay between the instruments is on another level and they create music sometimes seemingly out of nothing but raw emotion and jagged edge guitars; but also consider how this interplay serves the song – it heightens what the words are about through sonic means. For example, there are often moments in songs where a blanket of distortion will settle over everything acting like a sonic haze, enveloping everything and creating a spooky sensation where the guitars just sink in and wash over you at the same time. And it’s not used as a cheap trick – it has to build to it, the song has to call for it, the lyrics must demand it. It’s equal parts thoughtful, tasteful and incredible.

The whole thing is so perfectly put together as a record that it’s staggering to me to think about how much effort must have gone into making this without losing the raw power of what its about, and instead magnifying it times ten. That to me is its most winning quality, and it is a definite show of what rock music is and can be. Too bad they’ve broken up now.

By Jonathan Codfour.