Thank goodness that, after 25 years, Sleater-Kinney is striding boldly into the future, bruised and broken but still very much alive.
I don’t know how to approach criticisms that The Center Won’t Hold betrays what Sleater-Kinney should be because the band sounds as much like itself as ever: perceptive, raw, and fiercely devoted to sound as power.
The Centre Won’t Hold sees them as vital, compelling and as searingly relevant as ever.
With a new chapter beginning for the band, they have provided the perfect platform for future exploration and experimentation.
The Center Won't Hold sounds like a band urgently resetting their course, putting their fury and fear ona war footing. At times., it's on a industrial scale ... There are gorgeous pop songs here, too.
The Center Won’t Hold is an album made of sturdy, resilient stuff; it’s built to weather the storm no matter how strong.
‘The Center Won’t Hold’ doesn’t feel like a picture of a band in flux - it is a band emerging, fully realised, into a new form. With this album, there is little doubt that Sleater-Kinney know the trick to reinvention.
Life passes by quickly and the world is crumbling, but Sleater-Kinney are doing what they do best – saying something important while still having a blast.
An intelligent, exploratory walk-through of the psycho-social confines of our existence. It doesn’t always feel that comfortable, but it’s not meant to.
It should be celebrated as a brave left turn, where one of indie rock's most consistent bands took a giant creative leap 25 years into their career and stuck the landing with poise.
St. Vincent’s sleek, streamlined production stands out from the rest of the band’s catalog, but all of the elements you first fell in love with are still here.
Full of transformation and deserved indignation, The Center Won’t Hold is the first Sleater-Kinney album since the rest of the world started to catch up.
Sometimes on The Center Won’t Hold Sleater-Kinney are the ones offering the strength, but more often they’re the vulnerable party looking for someone to lift them up.
The Center Won't Hold works best when it is palpably teeming with lust, sadness, or frustration. While this is not a political album in the way 2002's One Beat was, there is a clear struggle on display over modern female and queer identities and how it has evolved throughout Sleater-Kinney's career.
The prophetically-titled The Center Won’t Hold is a sure stride rather than a misstep.
The strangest thing about the album ... is the nagging sense of try-hard: Sleater-Kinney have always felt effortless.
In many places, these songs feel derivative in a way that the band’s music never has before.
What's absent about The Center Won't Hold is that it presents a powerful and necessary premise, only to find out that there's not much of a message behind it. Sleater Kinney sure have a lot to say, but overall, they don't end up saying much.
Sleater-Kinney tries new things throughout The Center Won't Hold and, more often than not, they don't pan out.
The award for most ironic title of the year goes to...
Sleater-Kinney's new album isn't bad, but it fails to quell the narratives that surrounded the record during its rollout. The Center Won't Hold has some of Sleater-Kinney's sleekest releases, but also their clunkiest. Instead of feeling like three women unified as one powerful voice, the album sounds like a schizophrenic and bland amalgamation of decisions fighting for center stage.
Sleater-Kinney's music is an exercise in balance. ... read more
I really, truly appreciate the band experimenting. As much as I love them, they have a signature sound, and after such along career, switching it up was necessary. However, this seems to be the wrong direction. In principle, Sleater-Kinney adopting poppier tendencies makes perfect sense. They've always had a knack for hooks and catchiness—but they've never been generic—which is an attribute this album lacks. The cleaner/compressed production causes their punk, riot grrrl edge to be ... read more
After coming back together and reforming from a nearly 10 year split, Sleater-Kinney once again tries kicking at a new direction to try. Yet even after the underwhelming return, they still haven't quite found their spot again in the modern landscape of Indie Rock even with the Post-Punk sounds being mixed in. This project just comes off as very odd and feels like Sleater-Kinney is once again leaving their dedicated fans in the past for ventures into new territory that doesn't really correlate ... read more
It definitely has a few weak spots but you're all way too mean to this. It's a good album, St Vincent's production on it is great actually, and I think the change in sound was something the band needed to try.
The Downward spiral if Trent Reznor went on Tumblr instead of wanting to shoot himself
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1 | The Center Won't Hold 3:04 | 81 |
2 | Hurry On Home 2:48 | 82 |
3 | Reach Out 3:30 | 75 |
4 | Can I Go On 3:30 | 73 |
5 | Restless 2:41 | 68 |
6 | RUINS 5:18 | 57 |
7 | LOVE 2:16 | 67 |
8 | Bad Dance 2:45 | 69 |
9 | The Future Is Here 3:00 | 65 |
10 | The Dog / The Body 4:22 | 76 |
11 | Broken 3:02 | 66 |
#20 | / | Fopp |
#24 | / | musicOMH |
#27 | / | Q Magazine |
#28 | / | BrooklynVegan |
#28 | / | Louder Than War |
#29 | / | Rolling Stone |
#36 | / | Bandcamp Daily |
#36 | / | MOJO |
#36 | / | The Guardian |
#37 | / | Under the Radar |