Album Review: Corin Tucker Band - Kill My Blues

Whilst the relevance and power of Sleater-Kinney is without question, the trials and tribulations of core member Corin Tucker have been much less memorable. Whilst Carrie Lowenstein and Janet Weiss have joined forces in Wild Flag, Tucker's solo efforts haven't had the same bite or verve.

Corin Tucker Band's 2010 debut, 1000 Years, was fairly nondescript, an effort to break away from the shadows of S-K but without many original thoughts on how to do so. Kill My Blues seems custom-built to wipe the dreariness of that last effort off the map, amping up the energy and bombast, and on tracks like Neskowin (a coming-of-age single with smile-inducing backing vocals) and the heartfelt I Don't Wanna Go, Tucker lets fly with her idiosyncratic wail, all to great effect. To be honest, paying homage to Tucker's glory days would serve her much better, because these are the high points. Elsewhere there is the grungey, Teen Spirit-aping Constance, the brooding blues of Blood, Bones And Sand, and the soulful breakdown in Joey, but the band start to stretch thin beyond this point. Summer Jams feels like two songs stretched to an inch of their lives then hogtied together into a bittersweet mess; None Like You wants to haunt, but invariably bores, while Outgoing Message is subdued when there's no need to be.

It must be said that Tucker's voice is still as jaw-dropping as ever, if not more so. Nevertheless, as a band (featuring members of Unwound and Stephen Malkmus' Jicks, no less) they're a little lost, unsure what palette they're painting with, leaving Kill My Blues as a second near-miss.