The Sleater Kinney split in 2019, (for that is surely what it was), after almost three decades as an unchanging touring and recording trio, was an interesting one. It was provoled apparently by genuine musical diffrence and was followed shortly afterwards by a strange and atypical sounding SK album The Center Won't Hold.
Now Janet Weiss, the Sleater Kinney member who felt obliged to leave, is back, with a new band named Slang, (or else an old one, they've worked together ten years back) and a new album called Cockroach in a New Town. First of all it doesn't sound much like Sleater Kinney.
It sounds like an alternative, pumchy, guitar record and its frankly just great without necessarily being destined for anyone's end of the year lists. Slang have a male vocalist and lead guitarist Drew Grow and three supporting musicians, including Weiss, to eliminate any need to discuss how it connects with SK's Fem legacy.
If any immediate label were applied it would probably be a Glam one. There is something incredibly grandiose about both Grow's delivery and Slang's musical arrangements that it seems to fit although there is nothing particularly asexual about his projection, a reasonable disclaimer, as this was a strong characteristic of that movement.
But there is a large amount of over the top early Seventies melodrama here and its all a great deal of fun, In fact I'd have to say, a lot more fun than there's been on display on SK. Listening to this your tempted to suspect that Weiss might have made the right move.
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