4 out of 5

Label: Kill Rock Stars

Producer: John Goodmanson

I realize I harp on sequencing quite a bit, but it’s totally an art in and of itself, and can make or break snap judgments of albums.  “All Hands” is so close to being perfect, but S-K has always suffered at the hands of sequencing on a lot of their albums, their sound one of such unique bluster – Corin Tucker’s loud-as-hell warble, constant production mate John Goodmanson turning the clean-distortion high-end stuff up to the max, letting it ring out, and Janet Weiss’s motherfuck of tap-tap on her drum kit, always in step with the fast pace set by Carrie Brownstein’s guitar jangle – it’s a tough call whether to frontload the album with noise or to try to split it up.  It almost seems like it’d be better if they ditched some of the off tracks and just kept one mood per album, which they would seem to do later on with One Beat and The Woods – two very different, but distinct feeling pieces – and “All Hands” is on the way to that, at a cross-roads between their smoother interlaced playing style of later years and the more haphazard balls-out rock of earlier albums.  It’s easy to skip over S-K’s lyrics (to me) because this is the definition of a BAND, the vocals working as another instrument, but this was the first album where I slowed down to listen to what Tucker was saying and was impressed by the way her lyrics are firmly on the side of being written by a female, and definitely carry aggression and tenderness that matches each song’s mood, but somehow stay from overly feminist themes that plague bands of this nature.  It doesn’t feel like she’s compromising a damn thing, and it makes the lyrics both more introspective and more accessible.

Anyhow, you’ll get ramped up into a frenzy by the first 2/3rds of this album, and then it feels like the band doesn’t really know where to go, floundering lightly through some pitter-patter tracks at album’s end that let your mind go wandering.  I also think that Sleater-Kinney is an acquired taste, one that takes a few listens to really get in to.  They have such a pleasantly distinct loud sound that it’s easy to overlook the substance of the songs and the amazing skill each player brings to the table.  Too talented to make a perfect album?  Heh.  Dunno.  But AHotBO, if you’re going to own one S-K album to get a taste of their full range, is a pretty good bet.