3 out of 5

Label: Chainsaw

Producer: Tim Green

Pretty much standard riot grrl shizz, and we’re all glad that drummer Lora Macfarlane was replaced.  Corin Tucker’s vocal trill is already there, as is the group’s willingness to just shred it up sometimes (‘A Real Man’), and from the opener ‘Don’t Think You Wanna’, you can already sense the formation of the S-K ‘sound’… which I’m horrible at describing BUT YOU KNOW IT.  (…does that count as describing it?)  Alas, otherwise, this 22 minute ditty is pretty dismissible, especially stuffed as it is with the high-school era female anthems.  S-K is a chick band, I have no illusions about that, but Tucker’s lyrics became a lot sharper over the years… which is supposed to happen, so that’s good.  (sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s bad)  And the group would obviously learn to experiment a bit more beyond the 2-minute mark, during which, on this record, things can just hit one riff and then a chorus and then quit.

Bashing on original drummer Lora, at this point her rock standards style fit fine, but her vocals and lyrics were a stark contrast to Corin’s – in emotion, in depth – and thus her imaginatively named ‘Lora’s Song’ just doesn’t belong here.  To be fair, the band did develop between this and ‘Call the Doctor’, which was also Lora, so who knows the group could have evolved had she stayed on?  …I say, but then look down and scuff the dirt and relisten to all the Janet Weiss-backed discs.

Self-titled is really only notable as an origins disc.  Had this group disappeared after this, so would the disc from my rotation.