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Stream album here

Today, Sleater-Kinney release, Little Rope, their eleventh studio album and first for Loma Vista. The album was named one of the most anticipated releases of the year by Rolling Stone, NPR, Pitchfork, Vulture, Paste Magazine, them, Consequence, Esquire and more. Little Rope is one of the finest, most delicately layered records in the band’s 30-year career, as evidenced by the album’s singles ‘Hell‘, ‘Say It Like You Mean It‘ and ‘Untidy Creature‘.

To call Little Rope flawless feels like an insult to its intent – it careens headfirst into flaw and brokenness – a meditation on what living in a world of perpetual crisis has done to us, and what we do to the world in return. On the surface, the album’s 10 songs veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. The New Yorker has also called it “Sleater-Kinney’s most tender album.” 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 the only way to gain control is to let it go.

Album stand-outs like ‘Hunt You Down’, ‘Needlessly Wild’ and ‘Dress Yourself’ showcase the album’s interplay of lyrical and musical moods, which give the record an immense depth. Even the catchiest hooks are hiding something. The opening riff on ‘Hunt You Down’ sounds a warning that smashes against a chorus delivered with a hint of deceptive sweetness: “The thing you fear the most will hunt you down” – a line Brownstein heard in an interview with a funeral director, said to him by a father preparing to bury his child. ‘Needlessly Wild’ starts out delicious, the single-syllable “wild” bending like taffy. But then the lyrics betray something a little more malicious, a little more marked by pain, and soon “I’m needlessly wild” festers into “I’m needless and wild, needless and wild.” Of ‘Dress Yourself’ which contains the lyrics “dress yourself in clothes you love for a world you hate,” Carrie Brownstein told The New Yorker “I think what kind of haunts me about that song is that I wrote the lyrics, exactly as they are now, before my mom died. The chorus is very much about the pain I have in my life. Or, a pain. A long-standing pain. Of depression, or a sense of feeling misplaced sometimes. It was surreal to have her die after I’d written it. It was like I’d gifted the song to myself beforehand.”

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Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope
album out now via
Loma Vista Recordings

Listen to ‘LITTLE ROPE’ here

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Praise for Sleater-Kinney’s Little Rope

“The carefully distilled essence of rock catharsis is alive and potent” — The Age

“‘Little Rope’ is liberating in new ways for a band that have always spoken up when called upon. It emboldens its listener to feel power in confronting the uncomfortable feelings, and encourages them to absorb every emotion along the journey. It is a shining glimmer of hope in a room full of sorrow, and another string to their ever-growing bow.” — NME ★★★★ 

“With seemingly none of that badass-ery from their classic late-’90s output diluted by the passage of time, ‘Little Rope’ sloshes up nothing less than a condensed, rocket-punch collection of ten three-minute bangers” — DIY ★★★★

 “Little Rope feels, after all, like one of Sleater-Kinney’s most taut and focused outings, with every crisp guitar line and expressive vocal showcased in textured relief” — The Guardian  ★★★★

“One of the most ferocious bands in rock… Pounding lyrics sharp and strong, demanding respect and wrapping together the personal and political.” — Rolling Stone

“”Little Rope” might be Sleater-Kinney’s most tender album, articulating forgiveness for the person who is unable to bear the unbearable.” — New Yorker

“it’s become increasingly clear that we must, at long last, universally consider Sleater-Kinney as one of the very best groups to ever do it.” — Paste Magazine

“Less a band, more a force of nature, they’ve always been – and continue to be – one of rock’s most electrifying experience.” — Clash

“Distorted thought the lens of tragedy and trauma Little Rope makes perfect sense. The album itself has all of the elements of a collision and we’re somehow involved.” — 13th Floor, NZ

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About LITTLE ROPE

To call Little Rope flawless feels like an insult to its intent – it careens headfirst into flaw and brokenness – a meditation on what living in a world of perpetual crisis has done to us, and what we do to the world in return. On the surface, the album’s 10 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 the only way to gain control is to let it go.

In the autumn of 2022, Carrie Brownstein received a call from Corin Tucker, who herself had just received a call from the American embassy in Italy. Years earlier, Brownstein listed Tucker as her emergency contact on a passport form, and while she had since changed her phone number, Tucker had not. The embassy staff were desperately trying to reach Brownstein. When they finally did, they told her what happened: While vacationing in Italy, Brownstein’s mother and stepfather had been in a car accident. Both were killed.

Although some of the album had already been written, aspects of each song—a guitar solo, the singing style, the sonic approach—were pulled into a changed emotional landscape. As Brownstein and Tucker moved through the early aftermath of the tragedy, elements of what was to become the emotional backbone of Little Rope began to form – how we navigate grief, who we navigate it with, and the ways it transforms us.

Little Rope was recorded at Flora Recording and Playback in Portland, Oregon with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton.

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AMNPLIFY – ML