This is Sleater-Kinney’s best record since they
reconvened in 2015, and a case could be made for it being their best ever. They’ve
always oozed confidence and quality, but on Path of Wellness, they
really are operating at the very top of their game. The choruses consistently
grab, and the verses build and twist in interesting and surprising ways. A
return to straighter rock after dabbling with (amongst other things) weird
electro-doom on 2019’s disappointing The Center Won’t Hold, Path of
Wellness benefits hugely from the refocus. The booming opening to ‘High in
the Grass’ and its subsequent segue into bass led math rock is a highlight for
me, as is the lo-fi menace of ‘No Knives’. Many bands are labelled ‘feminist’
simply because they have female members (or even just one) but Sleater-Kinney
have, of course, always had a genuine feminist focus to many of their lyrics. Path
of Wellness is no different, with its crowning lyrical moment being the
wonderful exploration of male hypocrisy that is ‘Complex Female Characters’. It’s
a track that has been cited by some as being very ‘now’ or ‘Me2 era’, but I’d
argue that actually it’s pretty timeless. More than 25 years since their debut
album, Path of Wellness is a showcase for masters at work.