Sleater-Kinney Little Rope LP

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the May/June 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Sleater-Kinney returns with Little Rope, one of the finest, most delicately layered records in the band's 30-year career. On the surface, Little Rope's ten songs veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. But beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record, and a lyrical and emotional compass pointed firmly in the direction of something both liberating and terrifying: the sense that only way to gain control is to let it go.

...Little Rope coheres around songs and expression, the two halves of Sleater-Kinney finding sustenance in the creation of music. Sadness lurks upon the edges of the record, as does rage, but Little Rope ultimately feels cathartic: by processing Brownstein's loss and dwelling upon their shared bonds, Sleater-Kinney once again feels united and purposeful.

Little Rope finds the esteemed punk and indie outfit of 30 years returning to a massive, distorted sound reminiscent of their early 2000s records such as The Woods (2005), while continuing synth elements that were introduced on The Center Won't Hold (2019)... they are processing grief, honoring the distinctive sounds of their past, and bringing in new colors to their sonic palette that carry them into the future.