No Cities To Love stares down its troubles, power and joy ultimately lying in the hands of the people who can write such songs.
In an era of cheap-shot reformations, Sleater-Kinney pull the plug on the past and flick the switch on the future.
There’s more than a convincing argument that ‘No Cities To Love’ could be Sleater-Kinney’s finest work to date. Honed to their sharpest point, it’s certainly their most immediate.
Sleater-Kinney have detonated their own controlled explosion of sharp riffs and stroppy vocals on this comeback. Against the odds, these punks have improved with age.
Somehow, from nothing, they’ve pulled off a surprising but oh so welcome return, and this record plays like a triumphant middle finger salute, coolly showing everyone how its done… and writing the first line on a thousand ‘album of the year’ lists before January’s even out.
It’s an exploration of success, of age, and of the group’s journey. And while some of the album’s sounds might not be especially revolutionary ... they’re madly solid and compelling all the same.
Sleater-Kinney are sick of the rules as they stand, but they don’t just want to break the rules; they want to make new ones. They could only do that by coming back together to reintroduce their own perspective and fight their own battle.
The Woods remains Sleater-Kinney’s grandest statement. The trio, however, triumphs in short bursts of joy, rage, and those lesser, in-between emotions. No Cities to Love replaces its predecessor’s sweep with blood, fire, and melody
What's striking about No Cities to Love, which was written and recorded in secret, as if the band was a covert cell, is how at first listen it seamlessly fits into Sleater-Kinney's catalogue.
Ultimately, No Cities is not a comeback; it’s a reinvention, a continuation. It’s the sound of a new band exploiting all the benefits of a matured relationship between the players.
They've returned fully charged on the triumphant No Cities To Love.
The simple fact is that ‘No Cities To Love’ sounds hungrier, fiercer and more up for the fight than next to anything coming from newer, younger rock artists right now.
There’s so much of the band’s past in here, from their spikiest hostility to their sleekest accessibility, but they also seem to be rewriting the rules as they go, which makes this album just fine for newcomers too.
Whether No Cities To Love ends up being a one off or the start of another chapter of the band’s career, Sleater-Kinney could very well go on to inspire a generation of musicians all over again.
Sleater-Kinney are one of the great rock bands and No Cities To Love is the perfect comeback: a treat for die-hard fans as well, a perfect introduction for newcomers – and what a journey that’ll be.
No Cities to Love exceeds all expectations of what a reunion album should sound like by not sounding like a reunion album. There’s no dead air between it and The Woods, just beautiful, logical forward movement.
The first and lasting impression of No Cities to Love is one of joy, a joy that emanates from a group who realized the purpose and pleasure of being in a band during their extended absence.
The songs on ‘No Cities To Love’ are short, taut and lethal, harking back, if anything, to their earliest albums. But they’re more complete songwriters now, and there isn’t a track on ‘No Cities To Love’ that doesn’t have a killer chorus.
Cities might be their most oblique, which is hilarious because it's also their simplest.
No Cities to Love is both a return to their familiar riot grrl roots and an unabashed demand to be heard again, to be idolized and adored and feared as rock icons.
Catchy as all-clashing hell, it's Sleater-Kinney's most front-to-back accessible album, amping their omnipresent love of new wave pop with aerodynamic choruses that reel and reel, enormously shouted and gasped and sung with a dead-cool drawl.
Their return may be more of the same of what they usually have given us, but if there’s a limit on a need for nimble, inspiring indie feminist punk, we haven’t reached it.
It's really best to experience No Cities to Love on its own terms, rather than by comparison to past classics: as a loud, exciting, barely-half-hour rock record. Its simplicity is matched by its richness and vitality.
No Cities To Love certainly sounds urgent and necessary, but there's no way they sound like a band that's just started: they're just too good.
Though fretting about fame has destroyed lesser bands for good, Sleater-Kinney have come back golden. Success hasn’t killed them after all – it’s made them stronger.
No Cities To Love is Sleater- Kinney’s most focused, accessible and often furious work.
Fierce, forceful, vibrant - far from another phoned-in reunion or attempt to cash in on the success of the Olympia-formed trio's post-SK careers.
They’ve been more consistent than most of us would ever have expected for the past ten years, and they came up trumps again with another winning combo of devil may care attitude, simmering tension and frantic, unrelenting hooklines that felt like a great night out with some long lost, much missed friends.
A certain poptimism is missed. Less abstractly, this album conforms a bit too much to a limited Sleater-Kinney narrative: that they do one thing really, really well.
Want an exciting and raw indie punk-rock album to add to your collection? Get in line for Sleater-Kinney’s No Cities to Love.
While most of the album’s ten songs are endlessly listenable, that nagging familiarity is unshakeable.
what about Birmingham?
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After the Release of the Impressive The Woods, it took Sleater-Kinney a decade to return with No Cities to Love and well, maybe they should of left it at The Woods, it not necessary this album is bad far from it but it feels like the once impressive female lead indie rock group has nothing more to give but simply safe indie rock which isn't bad, sometimes catchy but feels half empty compare to some of their other works. Decent album, but maybe unnecessary.
Track Review
Price Tag ... read more
After a decade long hiatus, Sleater-Kinney release what may be the last album among their discography to have their traditional punchy punk infused indie rock sound. It isn't necessarily their best album throughout their careers, but the trio return in strong and consistent form and do not seem to have lost step after their break.
No Cities to Love features a well produced version of their typical energetic tone, and leaves the album sounding cleaner than their usual sound. Although this takes ... read more
After The Woods in June of 2006, Sleater-Kinney called it quits and went on an indefinite hiatus. No one saw it coming and for the most part it came out of nowhere and without elaboration for nearly 10 years until Sleater-Kinney came back together for No Cities to Love. The reason for the breakup, if you are curious, was a lack of communication between the duo as they both had much different wants for the future of the band. In October of 2014 it was annouced a new project was made and ... read more
I really love this album - an absolute killer comeback record while not better or quite as impactful or loud as The Woods - still has a lot to say and carries forward a lot musically from the previous record, though this time just a bit more restrained and elegant.
Price Tag is a blistering opening track that shows that they hadn't lost their touch in the decade long hiatus and features incredible drumming from Weiss and some of my absolute favorite guitarwork from Brownstein ever. Seriously ... read more
Once again, Sleater Kinney isn't reinventing the wheel here, but that is part of their appeal for me. Sometimes, I don't wish to listen to something musically challenging; rather, I want to jam and have a great time without having to overthink. No Cities to Love serves this brief brilliantly, producing accessible tracks that allow one to jam to their heart's content while retaining lyrical gravitas. The lyrics are hardly the be-all and end-all of the innovation, but adequate substance exists to ... read more
1 | Price Tag 3:54 | 89 |
2 | Fangless 3:34 | 85 |
3 | Surface Envy 3:06 | 90 |
4 | No Cities To Love 3:05 | 89 |
5 | A New Wave 3:38 | 89 |
6 | No Anthems 3:19 | 85 |
7 | Gimme Love 2:16 | 81 |
8 | Bury Our Friends 3:23 | 87 |
9 | Hey Darling 2:25 | 89 |
10 | Fade 3:37 | 83 |
#1 | / | The Daily Beast |
#1 | / | The Skinny |
#2 | / | A.V. Club |
#2 | / | musicOMH |
#2 | / | TIME |
#3 | / | Reverb |
#4 | / | FasterLouder |
#4 | / | Paste |
#6 | / | Diffuser |
#6 | / | The Guardian |