Oddly enough, I sat down to begin
writing this review while (unknowingly) wearing a Sleater-Kinney
t-shirt, and I suppose that's all the context you need to understand
my anticipation for this album. The Woods
left me thinking Sleater-Kinney were heading in a new direction until
the announcement of their indefinite hiatus. Nothing short of
a true reunion will sate me, so it's best to take this review with
all of that in mind.
Wild Flag, while not a full blown
reunion, features two ex-members of Sleater-Kinney and thus is as
close as you can get without bringing Corin Tucker in. Moreover, the
self titled debut from Wild Flag sounds so similar, it might as well
be a Sleater-Kinney record in disguise. It's a hell of a lot more
like that band than Corin Tucker's solo record, to boot.
Indeed, even if there were no members
of Sleater-Kinney in Wild Flag, they are still the most obvious point
of comparison, so let's see if we
can nail down the exact records Wild Flag
sounds like. Well, to be fair, the addition of organ on some tracks
gives Wild Flag a novel, yet not outright fresh, sound. Wild Flag
really need to make more use of it if they want to distance
themselves from the past. Most of these tracks could be taken
straight from sessions for either The Woods
( 'Black Tiles' and, in particular, 'Racehorse', with its heavy
hitting low end, fuzzy production, and six minute plus runtime) or
The Hot Rock (the
tense, introspective, dark, and philosophical songs like 'Something
Came Over Me' and 'Electric Band' nod to it most of all). This isn't
a bad thing, since those are my two favorite Sleater-Kinney albums...
...but
it also leaves me wondering why I'm not listening to those albums
instead, which is a
bad thing. Despite the strength of these songs and the more
straightforward, immediate indie rock Wild Flag employs, I can never
shake the feeling that it's more appropriate to label Wild Flag a
Sleater-Kinney side project than a supergroup or band in its own
right. Make no mistake, if the organ solo on 'Future Crimes' were
played on a guitar instead, and Corin Tucker was around to provide
backing vocals, it would be a Sleater-Kinney song. I don't mean
“would sound like one”, I mean literally would be
a Sleater-Kinney song. Wild Flag is a side project or different band
in the same way Madvillain is a side project or different band for MF
DOOM, which is to say, they barely sound different despite having
some different people involved.
When
Wild Flag are cooking on all cylinders, such as during the jam in the
middle of the aforementioned 'Racehorse', there's a weird, new-ish
thrill to the band. But I said “new-ish” and not “new” for a
reason. To put it another way, Wild Flag is more like a drug you use
to help with withdrawal symptoms and not an outright cure for
addiction to Sleater-Kinney. If there were a different overall
aesthetic or even more organ dueling with the guitar, it would make
all the difference. But I digress. The notion “it's almost as good
as a proper new Sleater-Kinney album” is all I think you need to
know about Wild Flag
to determine whether or not it's for you.
4 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5
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