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Rating: This was among the last beacons of the now-defunct Riot Grrrls movement of the early '90s, this all-female trio from Portland, who released the album in question a year before a farewell veiled with the words "indefinite hiatus", certainly softer than a stronger definition that can be as violent as a stab wound: breakup.
But perhaps this was inevitable. "The Woods," in fact, represents the pinnacle of a climb that the three girls (Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein on vocals and guitars, and Janet Weiss on drums) progressively undertook successfully, resulting in 6 highly respectable albums, starting from the influence of the Riot Grrrls, particularly Bikini Kill, to then propose a more personal journey: an excellent mix of pop, punk, and rock based on the communication and alternation of two guitars, united by the tight rhythm of the drums. A mix that seemed to have consolidated definitively with the previous "One Beat" released in 2002. However, Sleater-Kinney decided to surprise us (noteworthy the choice of Dave Fridmann as producer and publishing the album with Sub-Pop instead of Kill Rock Stars like almost all their previous records).
The surprise effect arrives right from the first track, "The Fox": a firecracker exploding in the listener's ears, startling those who least expect it with its violent and powerful alternation between fast and slow, featuring lyrics like a modern fairy tale. The second track, "Wilderness", introduces us to one of the album's central themes, the desolation and disillusionment of everyday life, which will be revisited in the following "Jumpers" and "Modern Girl". The third track, "What's mine is Yours" hints at the new musical ingredients added to the band's recipe: psychedelia, noise, and improvisation. Retrospective elements, often found in lyrics containing literal references (Twain in "Jumpers" and Huxley in "Modern Girl"), that the girls look to in order to move forward, improve, and try to play something good, rich in references to the past but, for that reason, not less original. The manifesto of this "philosophy" is what is probably the best track on the album: "Entertain". A denunciation sung with bored and tight voices against the current indie scene, in their opinion, a passive copy of past bands without taking inspiration from their initial premises.
In this cloudy and disillusioned album, there is room for a brief but intense and warm ray of light, represented by the lovely "Rollercoaster", a sonic roller coaster on which one can only let go. The clouds return with the melancholic "Steep Air", followed by the near 11-minute "battle" of "Let's call it love", perhaps the definitive synthesis of what the three girls have learned in 11 years of career.
The album closes with a bitter pill that must be swallowed, willing or not, the sad "Night Light" that leaves us with a "Lost in Translation"-style sound image of a stepmotherly metropolis ready to swallow us in our loneliness.
"The Woods" could easily be the soundtrack of the materialistic, cliché, and solitary urban life from which, as "Jumpers" implies, the single that closes their career, perhaps the only escape route is death. And it is then that the endless wait for "something that will never come" will turn into a 4-second one, shorter but no less long. And maybe that's why after this album, the three girls decided to split up: to avoid ending up trapped in a prison of banality, monotony, and boredom.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Fox (03:24)
On the day the duck was born
The fox was watching all along
He said,
Land Ho!
(when he saw the duck)
Land Ho!
(and the duck saw him too)
'Shiny Pretty Fox' thought the duck
The duck came up onto the land
The fox just watching and he just laughed
I could show you some shiny tricks, he said
Come along we'll get our kicks, he said
Land Ho!
(for shiny tricks)
Land Ho!
(for me)
Oh Fox! Is this love?
Can you tell me? What is love?
That good looking fox only knew one trick
He could break hearts just lickety-split
The duck knew this game she had to quit
And her own pond she was headed to quick
I'll go
I'll go
and there's no looking back
Goodbye little fox
02 Wilderness (03:39)
Kenny and Linda on the way to Chelan
Transmission's shot, no back up plan
Will they hitch a ride?
Or get into a fight?
Moved to the West Coast
Packed up their things
The winters are gray
Now so are the dreams
They tried, to make it all right
All our little wishes have gone dry
Made it to the water, waded in the lies
When we felt the heat
Couldn't turn it into fire
Too caught up in our own desires
Said I do in the month of May
Said I don't the very next day
Will they try again?
Or is it doom for them?
Moved to a city
Where hippies run wild
Everything's white
Now so are the smiles
They tried, to fight the good fight
All our little wishes have gone dry
Made it to the water, waded in the lies
When we felt the heat
Couldn't turn it into fire
Too caught up in our own desires
We're spilt right in half
It's making me crazy
A two-headed brat
Tied to the other for life
A family feud
The red and the blue now
It's truth against truth
I'll see you in hell, I don't mind
All our little wishes have gone dry
Made it to the water, waded in the lies
When we felt the heat
Couldn't turn it into fire
Too caught up in our own desires
04 Jumpers (04:25)
I spend the afternoon in cars
I sit in traffic jams for hours
Don't push me
I am not ok
The sky is blue most every day
The lemons grow like tumors
They are tiny suns
Infused with sour
Lonely as a cloud
In the Golden State
The coldest winter I ever saw
Was the summer that I spent
The only substance is the fog
And it hides all that has gone wrong
Can't see a thing
Inside the maze
There is a bridge adored and famed
The Golden spine of engineering
Whose back is heavy
With my weight
Lonely as a cloud
In the Golden State
The coldest winter I ever saw
Was the summer that I spent
Be still this old heart
Be still this old skin
Drink you last drink
Sin your last sin
Sing your last song
About the beginning
Sing your song loud
So the people can hear
Be still this sad day
Be still this sad year
Hope your last hope
Fear your last fear
You're not the only one
You're not the only one
You're not the only one
You're not the only one
Let's go!
My falling shape will draw a line
Between the blue of sea and sky
I'm not a bird
I'm not a plane
I took a taxi to the Gate
I will not go to school again
Four seconds was
The longest wait
Four seconds was
The longest wait
Four seconds was
The longest wait
Four seconds was
The longest wait
05 Modern Girl (03:01)
My baby loves me
I'm so happy
Happy makes me a modern girl
Took my money
And bought a TV
TV brings me
Closer to the world
My whole life
Was like a picture
Of a sunny day
My whole life
Was like a picture
Of a sunny day
My baby loves me
I'm so hungry
Hunger makes me
A modern girl
Took my money
And bought a donut
The hole's the size of
This entire world
My whole life
Looked like a picture
Of a sunny day
My whole life
Looked like a picture
Of a sunny day
My baby loves me
I'm so angry
Anger makes me a modern girl
Took my money
I couldn't buy nothin'
I'm sick of this
Brave new world
My whole life
Is like a picture
Of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture
Of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture
Of a sunny day
My whole life
Is like a picture
Of a sunny day
06 Entertain (04:56)
So you want to be entertained?
Please look away, don't look away
We're not here 'cause we want to entertain
Go away, don't go away
Reality is the new fiction they saw
Truth is truer these days, truth is man-made
If you're here 'cause you want to be entertained
Please go away
Please go away
If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial
You come around looking 1984
You're such a bore, 1984
Nostalgia, you're using it like a whore
It's better than before
You come around sounding 1972
You did nothing new with 1972
Where's the smile you?
Where's the black and blue
Where's the black and blue
Where's the black and blue
If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial
Hey! Look around they are lying to you
Can't you see it's just a silly ruse?
They are lying, and I am lying too
All you want is entertainment
Rip me open it's free, oh yeah
If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial
Don't wear me down
I'm not running down
Don't wear me down
I'm not running down
1,2,3! If you want to take
A shot at me get in line
1,2,3! I've had all my
Shots and I'm fine
1,2,3! If you haven't had
Enough of me, get in line
1,2,3! You too deserve
It now, it's all right
1,2,3! We can drown in
Mediocrity, it feels sublime
1,2,3! It feels like someone
Pushed rewind
1,2,3! Give it to me easily,
My feeble mind needs time
1,2,3! Make it sweet and
Syrupy with rhyme
Don't drag me down
I'm not falling down
Don't drag me down
I'm not falling down
If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial
The grip of fear is already here
The lines are drawn
Whose side are you on?
07 Rollercoaster (04:55)
Sweet like my tomato
Red cherry tomato
Down at the market pick out the ripe one
Tempting me sorely and I want to bite one
Wait, wait save it for later
We had a good time at the beginning
It tasted just like all the things I was missing
I'll go at full boil 'till you
Stop, stop, stop, stop me
Later
Stay and I will make you dinner
Taste, each dish will be better
After the first bite say it's delicious
But then appetite isn't what we'd predicted
Would you want to head it up later?
We had a good time at the beginning
It tasted just like all the things I was missing
I'll go at full boil 'till you
Stop, stop, stop, stop me
Later
Rollercoaster, want to go back to the way things were
I'm on a rollercoaster, want to get back on the Tilt-a-Whirl
I'm dizzy and faithless, where is the ground?
You said this thing would not go upside down
Rollercoaster, want to go back to the way things were
All right
Sweet like my tomato
Red cherry tomato
I know that some of our days are bitter
Stay will me honey and things could get better
Wait, wait until later
We had a good time at the beginning
It tasted just like all the things I was missing
I'll go at full boil 'till you
Stop, stop, stop, stop me
Later
08 Steep Air (04:06)
I'm tired of waiting on a ship that won't leave shore
I'm tired of waiting on a ship that won't leave shore
The water's bloody with the ones, who came before
The water's bloody with the ones, who came before
Hey, she made you say it, yeah they'll make you say it
Yeah, you know you said it alot
Hey, you never stay for, now you gotta pray for
Something better than what you've got
I'm tired of waiting on a plane that don't have wings
I'm tired of waiting on a plane that don't have wings
The runway's rotten with the dirt and weeds
The runway's rotten with the dirt and weeds
Hey, he made you say it, yeah they'll make you say it
Yeah, you know you sad it out loud
You never stay for, now you gotta pray for
Something better than what you've got
I booked my ticked
Packed my bags
Flight is leaving
Our time has passed
I'm tired of knocking on a door that just won't budge
Locked out of the engine
It's a wheel that you have spun
But who's to say I don't have wings
10 Night Light (03:40)
Oh little light
That shines for me in the dark of night
Oh little sigh
Sometimes I follow you all the way home
I would almost have to ask you
I hate to be led
So give me a spark I can look for instead
How do you do it
This bitter and bloody world
Keep it together and shine for your family
How do you do it
With visions of worst to come
Live in the present
And spin off the rays of sun
Oh little beam
Splitting the fog and the dirt in between
Oh simplify
Like a problem you try to work out in your mind
I would almost have to ask you
It's clumsy when said
So give me a spark I can look for instead
How do you do it
This bitter and bloody world
Keep it together and shine for your family
How do you do it
With visions of worst to come
Live in the present
And spin off the rays of sun
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Other reviews
By floyd
Ten tracks constantly swept by the two ultra-distorted guitars and a hard-hitting drum.
If we demand masterpieces, great inventiveness, or technique, better to resort to something else.
By Sangemini
The album flows pleasantly between skewed but unforgettable riffs, singing that's hard (or even hysterical...) but ready to turn melodic.
Definitely the best album released in 2005 (and don’t tell me otherwise for Mentre Tutto Scorre by Negramaro..).
