Sleater-Kinney Pirouettes Through The Stages of Grief on ‘Little Rope’

After a 19-year hiatus, Sleater-Kinney just dropped their long-awaited new album “Little Rope”. 

While being a notable emblem for the Riot Grrrl movement that was birthed in their hometown of Olympia, Washington in the early 1990’s, the combination of feminism, punk music and politics served as inspiration for a movement that tagged along with those whom had important things to say.

The eerie fog that settles in their hometown is a small hint to what inspired the bands’ new album. The opening tracks’ intro “Hell” washes you with a melancholic aura that seems haunted, yet simultaneously hopeful. 

I feel this album holds a lot of weight for the members of the band - especially Carrie Brownstein. Having this album come out shortly following the car crash that took both her mother and stepfather, this album is what it means to navigate grief; mostly who we navigate it with and the ways it transforms us. The track that defines this initial feeling of loss is “Hunt You Down”. Early in the song the lyrics state “I’ve been down so long, I pay rent to the floor. I’m reelin’ out of sorts I’m unsteady, been crawlin’ round here for days hoping the walls open up”. This is a beautifully accurate way to define the earliest stages of losing something that is so dear to you. “Paying your rent to the floor”, because that’s were you live when you grieve - the lowest of places; and yet still believing that the walls that hold you down and squeeze you till you can’t breathe, will one day open up to allow you to have that first exhale of hope.

However deep and suffocating the navigation of loss may be, Sleater-Kinney chooses to segue into something a tad lighter with the track “Dress Yourself”. The lyrics that start off the song hit home for the grief-stricken. “Get up, girl, and dress yourself in clothes you love for a world you hate. Stand up straight and comb your hair”. The lyrics very much speak for themselves; an anthem for those who can’t seem to get up and take care of themselves when they are in emotional disarray. Each strum of the guitar, every intentional vocal quiver gives the listener something to look forward to. 

Overall this album is a dance. Sleater-Kinney pivots left, right and center through the emotions of loss, pain and healing. Little Rope encourages the listener to feel the full spectrum of emotions that come with navigating through the dense fog of grief; and to be open to the wondrous possibility that there is a clearer road ahead.