The Center Won't Hold

This may also be Sleater-Kinney’s lustiest album yet. Several of the album’s 11 songs are peppered with breathy sighs and ecstatic yelps, and it’s almost as if Brownstein is staring you directly in the eyes as she sings, “Let me defang you and defile you on the floor,” in “Bad Dance.” But this, too, has its political aspect. ... A stunning finale is another Sleater-Kinney specialty, and The Center Won’t Hold delivers with the devastating, disarming “Broken.”

Although the departure of Weiss is sad, it hasn’t diminished any of Brownstein and Tucker’s power: The Centre Won’t Hold sees them as vital, compelling and as searingly relevant as ever.

The Center Won’t Hold is by far their most stylised, radio-friendly work to date; produced by St Vincent, Annie Clark’s icy sheen and dark seduction is all over the record.

This album may be a bold departure for the group, but in this moment, who can afford to be meek? Sleater-Kinney never has, and nine albums in, that fact continues to hold.

Stylistically, this record is a strikingly bold step for the band and it is impossible not to feel Clark’s influence.

It’s more polished than most S-K albums, but it’s still a flurry of frenetic chords, caustic drum beats and yelps and hisses from Carrie Brownstein and Tucker. Clark gave The Center Won’t Hold a very modern filter and sheen, but Sleater-Kinney still set the tone.

The Center Won’t Hold is a real-time examination of the fraying that takes its toll on peoples’ insides and outer shells during times both good and bad. Agitations about screen-borne life and unpleasant urges bounce off grander existential horrors; there’s no digging out of them, this record bellows, but thrashing around and attempting to find others to share the burdens will at least stave off malaise.

The world has changed, and, though bruised and broken, the sincere, generation-galvanising Sleater-Kinney have changed for the better.

Sleater-Kinney are as potent now as they ever were – their music spiky and confrontational, melding the personal and political to striking effect.

Propelled by sharp, angular sounds, ‘The Center Won’t Hold’ craves connection above everything else in a world that can often seem desperately lonely. Each dirty and distorted throb (unlocked to full potential by Annie Clark’s gift for making guitars sound positively devilish) seems to yearn for another body to hold onto.

Weiss now sounds a little estranged from the family unit. Otherwise, this is a bold and brilliant leap into a new sound for the band.

The band clearly dug much deeper and as a result they created bigger sounds than before. It can be seen as the positive impact of a collaboration that has lasted more than twenty-five years – even though drummer Janet Weiss recently decided to leave the band. Maybe the centre really cannot hold.

To some fans, The Center Won't Hold might always be remembered as the album that convinced Sleater-Kinney's legendary drummer to leave. But really, 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.

Sleater-Kinney deliver the goods almost immediately on their new LP, on a title track that begins with industrial clangs, then explodes into rock fury rivaling anything in their catalog.

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. [Sep 2019, p.84]

It roars with confidence and vigour. [Sep 2019, p.106]

Their inimitable fury and drive is intact. [Sep 2019, p.18]

Even if tracks like “Can I Go On” or “RUINS” don’t manifest themselves as solidly as some of the others, they’re still interesting, well-constructed, complete thoughts. The Center Won’t Hold is a Sleater-Kinney record not only because their name is on the cover, but because all of the elements you first fell in love with are still here.

It is both quintessentially Sleater-Kinney and entirely unlike any record they’ve made before—which makes it a thrilling listen even during the rare moments that don’t quite gel.

Concerns over the band’s changing sound are summarily squashed under the furore of their zipping forward with the energy and heft of a dozen motorcycles.

The album is successful in displaying where Brownstein and Tucker (as the band's dual-mouthpieces) are in 2019, encapsulated beautifully on the album's piano-led closer "Broken." Elsewhere, "Reach Out" and "Can I Go On" provide the kind of anthemic rallying calls we collectively get behind Sleater-Kinney for.

It doesn't matter whether that future looks good or bad. Either way, The Center Won't Hold is a surprising path for taking an honest look at things, holding it together, and moving on.

It's an album that forces the listener to abandon nostalgia and accept that things are different now. It's not a comforting notion, and it's one that may sit awkwardly for listeners who prize raw guitars over refined aesthetic, but The Center Won't Hold demonstrates what a fearless band Sleater-Kinney is.

The Center Won’t Hold is what most respected musicologists would term a “good album with some great songs.”

The strangest thing about the album, however, is the nagging sense of try-hard: Sleater-Kinney have always felt effortless.

The Center Won’t Hold clocks in at just over a 30 minutes and lacks a certain spark—a song with the barn-burning intensity of “Entertain” or the heartrending emotion of “One More Hour.” In many places, these songs feel derivative in a way that the band’s music never has before.

Much of “The Center Won’t Hold” doesn’t sound like the old Sleater-Kinney, which is precisely the point. Brownstein and Tucker prefer to go charging into the future, but at the expense of some of the very attributes that made them so compelling in the first place.

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.