Sleater-Kinney: All Hands On The Bad One : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Since kicking down the door in 1995 with their tuneful, ferocious, intelligent punk pop, Sleater-Kinney have remade rock aggression as thinking-women's work and handled punk with finesse. Over time the trio has also stripped away its impressive but obfuscating distortion and arena-size chomp to reveal a pungent melodicism, driving critics justifiably berserk with admiration. All Hands, like last year's astonishing The Hot Rock, is fueled by Janet Weiss' tricky drum work and Corin Tucker's unholy warble, guitar riffs all akimbo, but some of the melodies ("Milkshake n' Honey," "The Swimmer") are so odd, they're unpleasant; the women's writing is awfully self-conscious for a fifth album. "Male Model," "The Professional," "The Ballad of a Ladyman" and "You're No Rock n' Roll Fun" all rage against rock misogyny, and the bare-bones "#1 Must-Have" picks over the materialistic mess left behind by the riot-grrrl movement as a belligerent frat-rock culture steamrolled its efforts. Despite the thematic monotony, Tucker and her band mates think louder and rock smarter than anyone in their class; a modest effort like All Hands would be another band's masterpiece.