4 out of 5

Label: Chainsaw

Producer:  John Goodmanson

So there was Sleater-Kinney, the aggressive chick punk-rock band, and they were a good thing.  The typical S-K song – witnessed here on ‘I’m Not Waiting’ – of Corin Tucker’s warbles over a poppy off-beat and some high/low guitar duology to counter the lack of bass – was given a boost by the slicker and more complicated drumming of Janet Weiss, who would join after this album.  Lora Macfarlane keeps a more typical rock steadiness to things, and it seems to limit the whole group to that same sense of steadiness.  And, heh, it turns out that maybe I prefer that?  Something about being shunted into the rumbly wasteland of punk-rock perhaps forced the group to carve out an identity through pure aggression and momentum instead of the more complicated song structures and vocal hooks that would follow.  And perhaps lacking the confidence of a full-on critic and fan backing, Corin’s lyrics stray from lesbian anthem territory and deal more directly with relationships… which I find more relatable.  Basically, this is S-K as a band and not as a grrl-power act, something that I feel like they would eventually start to circle back around to and then fully re-realize on the fuzzed and blow-out ‘Woods’.  ‘Call the Doctor’ is lacking in a single highlight, whereas the albums to come would peak in a few indelibly incredible tracks, but the trade-off is that this whole thing is good instead of treading the ‘typical S-K song’ line for all of the non-indelibly incredible tracks.  Even the track mentioned has dashes of elements not seen again, some harsh and distorted backround yelps – thanks to Lora – which are also put to effective use on ‘Hubcap.’  The opening title track and closing track are all moody, down-tuned riffs, the flip-side of punk passion on something like ‘Little Mouth’ or ‘I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone’ – the latter track there flipping a potentially obnoxious song title into a badass amped up song about obsession.

Goodmanson, admittedly, doesn’t get to shine as much without the dynamics to play around with, but I sense Lora’s playing would lack zip in another producer’s mix, and John manages to give them proper oomph throughout.  And the space allotted the band certainly allowed them to grow.  Moving forward from here was probably rewarding for S-K fans at the time; moving backwards might not be as much so for everybody, but if the rough side of the band appeals, then perhaps this punkier version will sound as good to you as it does to me.