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MojoFeb 2, 2015No Cities To Love stares down its troubles, power and joy ultimately lying in the hands of the people who can write such songs. [Feb 2015, p.86]
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Jan 20, 2015Somehow, from nothing, they’ve pulled off a surprising but oh so welcome return, and this record plays like a triumphant middle finger salute, coolly showing everyone how its done... and writing the first line on a thousand ‘album of the year’ lists before January’s even out.
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Jan 20, 2015As always, the words have a political edge, touching on the evaporating middle class and the difficulties of forging mass movements. Thankfully, they’re expressed poetically, with no stink of political correctness.
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Jan 15, 2015Even though they're no longer underdogs—their last album, 2005's The Woods, cemented their rep as one of the all-time great groups—that hasn't changed on their triumphant return.
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Jan 12, 2015Though some of their peers may have waned on their long, drawn out returns, Sleater-Kinney have only grown stronger in their time off. Ten years away has made them more essential than ever. Nostalgia be dammed.
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Jan 20, 2015No Cities To Love is a bold and deeply revealing look at the band’s past nine years, both together and apart.
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Jan 15, 2015What a breathless--and breathtaking--comeback it is.
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Jan 12, 2015They’ve boiled their process down to its essentials, and No Cities to Love crams genius lyrics and hook after inescapable hook into just 10 tracks and 33 minutes.
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Jan 23, 2015Clocking in at a mere 32 minutes, the album is conceptually and sonically tight.
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Jan 20, 2015Thrilling and joyous, fierce and focused, the women sound like they’re having the time of their lives sinking their teeth back into the music together.
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Jan 20, 2015On Sleater-Kinney’s eighth album, the band sounds as vital, composed and necessary as ever. In just 10 songs and a little over 30 minutes, Sleater-Kinney does so much more than revive an old band. They craft an argument for having improved in its absence.
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Jan 20, 2015No Cities to Love exceeds all expectations of what a reunion album should sound like by not sounding like a reunion album.
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Jan 20, 2015The first and lasting impression of No Cities to Love is one of joy, a joy that emanates from a group who realized the purpose and pleasure of being in a band during their extended absence.
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Jan 16, 2015There's not enough space here to get into why Sleater-Kinney may be one of the most important bands of 2015, but one thing is clear: they've already delivered a serious contender for one of the year's best records.
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Jan 16, 2015No Cities to Love confirms that whatever alchemy seems to occur whenever the three sit down to make music together remains untouched by the passage of time. To put it simply, Sleater-Kinney have now made eight records, and they are all very, very good
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Jan 16, 2015It immediately stakes its claim as the rock album of 2015.
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Jan 16, 2015No Cities to Love spends much of its running time reminding us not what Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss can do but what other configurations of players can't.
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Jan 12, 2015Sleater-Kinney are one of the great rock bands and No Cities To Love is the perfect comeback: a treat for die-hard fans as well, a perfect introduction for newcomers--and what a journey that’ll be.
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Jan 9, 2015It’s heavy, assured and profound--a terrific record alone, but also one that sits in the Sleater-Kinney catalogue naturally, like they’ve never been away.
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Alternative PressJan 7, 2015They've returned fully charged on the triumphant No Cities To Love. [Feb 2015, p.94]
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Apr 9, 2015The Oregonians' confident comeback is balls-out bold, the threepiece returning with fresh vitality.
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Jan 20, 2015The album has the particular aliveness of music being created and torn from a group at this very moment--tempered, but with the wild-paced abandon that comes with being caged and then free.
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Jan 22, 2015Brilliance notwithstanding, it's really best to experience No Cities to Love on its own terms, rather than by comparison to past classics: as a loud, exciting, barely-half-hour rock record. Its simplicity is matched by its richness and vitality.
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Jan 13, 2015No Cities To Love finds the trio facing inwards, rocking out in a tight space, writing short and punchy punk songs and just generally enjoying bouncing off each other once more.
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Jan 23, 2015No Cities To Love is a triumph. Not only does it meet every one of our over-the-top demands as fans, it serves as a great entry point for those new comers who have yet to be introduced to one of the most important bands of the last quarter century.
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MagnetFeb 20, 2015It's a furious, loud, unbridled, relentless album. [No. 117, p.60]
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Kerrang!Feb 2, 2015This, album number eight, is ample reward for anyone who kept the faith. [17 Jan 2015, p.53]
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Jan 29, 2015No Cities To Love is Sleater- Kinney’s most focused, accessible and often furious work.
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Jan 23, 2015Sleater-Kinney is back in all its spiky, brainy, let-a-bunch-of-ideas-fight-it-out glory.
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Jan 21, 2015While the tightly managed polish and control perhaps doesn't grab the heart in the visceral way of older Sleater-Kinney, an emotional urgency remains on this album, albeit conveyed with greater sophistication.
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Jan 20, 2015Corin Tucker’s yelp remains a thing of wonder, Brownstein’s lead guitar never takes the easy option and Janet Weiss’s drums anchor all the thrilling unease.
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Jan 15, 2015No Cities to Love is a towering, fists-up record of thundering guitars and soaring hooks.
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Jan 14, 2015The 10 songs are tense and commanding, loaded with nervy post-punk charge, ricocheting rhythms and electric guitars both zippy and busy and wild and bucking.
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Jan 12, 2015The most exciting thing about No Cities is that Sleater-Kinney are one of those bands again--they sound as hungry, as unsettled, as restless as any of the rookies on their jock.
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Q MagazineJan 7, 2015Newcomers may be amazed that a rock band can still feel so vital. Even diehard fans will wonder at the sheer melodic intensity. [Feb 2015, p.107]
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UncutJan 7, 2015Throughout, their balance of the tense and clanging with the urgently poppy is impeccable. [Feb 2015, p.76]
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Jan 12, 2015No Cities to Love& is not a complete triumph, the totally devastating statement of revived purpose that they might have intended, but it's not for lack of trying.
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The WireJan 9, 2015For the most part, the album makes a convincing argument for Sleater-Kinney's continued relevance. [Jan 2015, p.63]
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Jan 7, 2015Accept the slight strain of portentousness to this album, though, and you'll find a world-class rock band in as fine form as ever.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 143 out of 167
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Mixed: 17 out of 167
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Negative: 7 out of 167
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Feb 3, 2015
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Jan 20, 2015
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Jan 20, 2015