Sleater-Kinney's "One Beat".

[sgnerdboy]

Okay, so I didn't buy this and it's not even out yet, but it is nice to have it on MP3 alright. I think this is really amongst the best they've ever done and this is coming from someone who was so jaded about this band a mere months ago that he thought about selling all his Sleater-Kinney stuff.

Quite different from the "Call the Doctor"/"Dig Me Out" stuff, but then again, they've been evolving from that for awhile.

I find this album quite poppy compared to some of the other stuff. I mean, there were some pop songs on "All Hands on the Bad One", but they were different/not as good. "Oh!" sounds like something Superdrag or Fountains of Wayne could've done. Meanwhile "Step Aside"'s got horns throughout the whole song (who could've guessed that The Kinney would ever have use for horn from listening to "Call the Doctor"?) and one of the best lines I've heard in music in 2002: "So why don't you shake a tail for peace & love?".

Spin has given them 8 out of 10, Magnet's gave them a very very lukewarm review and allmusic.com gave them four out of five stars, which is on par with "The Hot Rock" & "All Hands on the Bad One", which is a shame as "One Beat" is superior to "All Hands on the Bad One" in every way and superior to "The Hot Rock" too, which had some of the worst Kinney songs in memory ("Living in Exile", "Don't Talk Like")

kevin
+ http://tullamarine.org

[Footix]

Kevin--

I agree with you on all counts. Yeah, I think it's real poppy too, but it's not forced, or a "sell-out" record by any means.

It's unfortunate that since they are indie god(esse)s, any step toward a pop feel will get them knocks from the "hipper" press (it's no surprise that Spin reviewed this disc higher than Magnet), but their move toward pop has been organic, rather than calculated...don't you think? I'm really encouraged by the indie world's embracing of pop lately.

I for one would love to see & hear S/K and Le Tigre all over MTV and the radio. And why shouldn't they be?

[hangthadj]

I'm excited to hear this now. Thanks for the review. I honestly didn't think hot rock was bad though, I quite liked it.

[eneste]

I was wondering when you were going to start this thread Kevin. :) I downloaded this a couple weeks ago and I've listened to it a few times and no songs have really demanded my return, yet. I can't imagine that it will ever approach "Dig Me Out" in my interest but I'll keep listening to it just in case.

[sgnerdboy]

Originally posted by Footix
It's unfortunate that since they are indie god(esse)s, any step toward a pop feel will get them knocks from the "hipper" press (it's no surprise that Spin reviewed this disc higher than Magnet), but their move toward pop has been organic, rather than calculated...don't you think? I'm really encouraged by the indie world's embracing of pop lately

The thing is, I think some of it is rather different than what people expect, which is why it is throwing off typical indie people like Magnet. Then again, you could argue that with all that crap Spin listens to that they should have a harder type adjusting.

I think Magnet did like the pop stuff, but they didn't like the numbers that were a bit different sounding, such as "One Beat" & "Combat Rock".

There's always been that pop band in them, after all "Little Babies" off of "Dig Me Out" sounds rather pop to me. They've always adknowledged older pop bands they listened to, so you could argue they always wanted to write pop songs. After all, we all know the cover for "Dig Me Out" is the same as the one for "The Kink Kontroversy".

I didn't think "The Hot Rock" was bad at all, it just had some real duds, whereas I don't have a real problem with any of the songs on "One Beat". I don't get all the fuss over "Sympathy" at this point, but that doesn't make it a bad song.

I don't think this is going to approach "Dig Me Out" for me either, since a lot of that interest had to do with where I was at the time and what was going on in my life then. However, for "One Beat" to sound so good to me right now, I think is a real accomplishment. I really did not expect anything out of this album and this is really all a pleasant surprise to me.

kevin
+ http://tullamarine.org

[Footix]

This disc is now the fastest selling S/K record to date. Good for them.