Dear listeners,I first heard the band Sleater-Kinney when I was a teenager, and it’s not an exaggeration to say it changed my life. The drummer, Janet Weiss, played harder than pretty much anyone I’d ever seen, of any gender, and she sometimes wore pigtails. I still believe that Sleater-Kinney’s two-decade, eight-album stretch from 1995 to 2015 ranks among the strongest runs ever by an American band. But its last three albums, released since Weiss left the group, have largely left me cold. But I’d be lying, or blindly stanning, if I said I rank this new album with the band’s best work.

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Persons: Kinney, it’s, —, I’d, Janet Weiss, Weiss, Carrie Brownstein Locations: American