LISTEN: Sleater-Kinney’s “The Center Won’t Hold” Title Track Refers to 2016 Election

The album is out August 16 via Mom + Pop.
LISTEN: Sleater-Kinney’s “The Center Won’t Hold” Title Track Refers to 2016 Election

The album is out August 16 via Mom + Pop.

Words: Kim March

July 17, 2019

Despite recent drama surrounding some Sleater-Kinney turnover (drummer Janet Weiss has left the band, though Carrie Brownstein asked her to stay), the group’s tenth album is still forthcoming. 

Today’s release is the title track from The Center Won’t Hold, plus an accompanying lyric video. “The Center Won’t Hold” is the third track to be released off SK’s new album, which was produced by St. VincentIt’s also the record’s opening track, setting the stage with intensity and a sludgy repeated chant of “the center won’t hold,” a lyric presumably referencing William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming.” To quote: 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world 

Sound like any recent American power takeover to you? Watch the vid below. 

According to Corin Tucker (SK guitar/vocals), “‘’The Center Won’t Hold’ drops you into the world of catastrophe that touches on the election. And almost like a mission statement, at the end of that song, it’s like the band is finding its way out of that space by becoming a rock band.” 

See the full list of Sleater-Kinney tour dates below. The Center Won’t Hold is out August 16 via Mom + Pop.