''Path of Wellness'' is the tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member Janet We ...

. The album was released on June 11, 2021 by

Mom + Pop Music Mom + Pop Music is a New York City–based independent record label. Founded by Michael Goldstone in 2008, its roster includes Alicia Keys, Courtney Barnett, Magdalena Bay, Madeon, Tom Morello, Porter Robinson, Maya Hawke, Tycho, Tash Sul ...

. This is the band’s first album since 1996’s ''

Call the Doctor ''Call the Doctor'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Sleater-Kinney. It was released on March 25, 1996, by Chainsaw Records to critical acclaim. Recording and release ''Call the Doctor'' was written in three weeks and recor ...

'' not featured their long-time drummer

Janet Weiss Janet Lee Weiss (born September 24, 1965) is an American rock drummer, a member of Quasi (band), Quasi and former member of Sleater-Kinney. She was the drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, leaving after the album ''Mirror Traffic'', and co ...

, and their first album to featured as a duo.

Background

Following a nine-year hiatus, the American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

announced their return with the track "Bury Our Friends" on October 19, 2014. On January 20, 2015, they released ''

No Cities to Love ''No Cities to Love'' is the eighth studio album by American rock band Sleater-Kinney, released on January 20, 2015, through Sub Pop. It is the first album following a decade-long hiatus and the band's 2005 release, '' The Woods''. The album recei ...

'' via

Sub Pop Records Sub or SUB may refer to: Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB People * Bottom (BDSM), or "sub" for "submissive" * Substitute teacher Christianity * Sub tuum praesidium, an ancient hymn and prayer dedicated ...

, the first Sleater-Kinney album since 2005's '' The Woods''. Three years later, singer and guitarist

Carrie Brownstein Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974) is an American musician, actress, writer, director, and comedian. She first came to prominence as a member of the band Excuse 17 before forming the rock trio Sleater-Kinney. During a long hiatu ...

told ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' that Sleater-Kinney was working on a follow-up effort to ''No Cities To Love'', but that they were "going to do this very slowly". In January 2019, Brownstein confirmed to

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

that the album was produced by

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305 ...

and would be released later in the year. On July 1, 2019, drummer

announced over

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that she was leaving Sleater-Kinney, saying, "The band is heading in a new direction and it is time for me to move on." Sleater-Kinney's ninth studio album, ''

The Center Won't Hold ''The Center Won't Hold'' is the ninth studio album by American rock band Sleater-Kinney, released on August 16, 2019 by Mom + Pop Music. The album was produced by St. Vincent and is the last album with drummer Janet Weiss, who announced her depa ...

'', was released a month and a half later, on August 16. There was some speculation among fans that Weiss had left Sleater-Kinney due to St. Vincent's involvement in the new record, which Brownstein denied, saying that it was originally Weiss's idea to work with her. Responding to a fan on Instagram, Brownstein added, "She left. We asked her to stay. We tried. It's hard and sad." When Sleater-Kinney went on tour that September to promote ''The Center Won't Hold'', they recruited Angie Boylan of Aye Nako as their touring drummer. That November, Weiss appeared on the ''Trap Set With Joe Wong''

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, saying that she had left Sleater-Kinney because the "roles changed within the band", and that she was "just the drummer now" as opposed to "a creative equal" with Tucker and Brownstein.

Release and promotion

On May 11, 2021, Sleater-Kinney announced the album title, cover art, and release date for ''Path of Wellness'', and promised their fans "so much more, soon". Accompanying the album announcement was the release of ''Path of Wellness''s

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

and

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, "Worry With You". The video, directed by Alberta Poon, features a young couple, played by Fabi Reyna and Megan Watson, attempting to cohabitate in their undersized house. Tucker and Brownstein make

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s as an actor in a pharmaceutical commercial and as a television fitness instructor, respectively. On May 26, the band released their follow-up single and video to "Worry With You", titled "High in the Grass". Directed by Kelly Sears, the video for "High in the Grass" provides a

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

element, with trees with eyes and a number of decapitated figures, both dancing and attempting

cardiopulmonary resuscitation Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during Cardiac arrest, cardiac or Respiratory arrest, respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function ...

, before culminating in a dance party. The final single to be released in advance of ''Path of Wellness'' was "Method", which came out on June 9. The song was accompanied by a

Lance Bangs Lance Bangs (born September 4, 1972) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He directed the David Cross film '' Let America Laugh''. Bangs has also been heavily involved in the filming and production of MTV's ''Jackass'' televi ...

-directed

lyric video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of m ...

. To accompany the June 11 release of ''Path of Wellness'', Sleater-Kinney announced a

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

-style

livestream Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

channel, beginning at 9p.m. ( ET) on June 10. Hosted by Chris Hewett, the livestream featured "interviews, live performances and a fortune teller weighing in on he band'sfuture prospects", as well as a variety of guest appearances from celebrities and musicians such as

Nick Offerman Nicholas David Offerman (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor. He became widely known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015), for which he received the Television Critics Association Award fo ...

Megan Mullally Megan Mullally (born November 12, 1958) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Karen Walker in the NBC sitcom '' Will & Grace'' (1998–2006, 2017–2020), for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outst ...

, and

Matt Berninger Matthew Donald Berninger (, born February 13, 1971) is an American singer, primarily known as the frontman and lyricist of indie rock band The National. In 2014, he also formed the EL VY project with Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls and Menomena. ...

from the National. On June 25, Sleater-Kinney released a live

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

titled ''Live At The Hallowed Halls'', featuring recordings of the four tracks on ''Path of Wellness'' that they played during the livestream event. Sleater-Kinney promoted ''Path of Wellness'' with two other live and recorded events. On June 16, Sleater-Kinney appeared on ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

'' to perform "Worry With You". Rather than playing in front of a live studio audience, the band submitted a pre-taped performance from an abandoned

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...

. The next day, Tucker and Brownstein appeared on the

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

service ''Words + Music'' to discuss "30 years of shared history making music and making noise".

Critical reception

''Path of Wellness'' was met with mostly positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Path of Wellness'' has an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 78 based on 18 reviews. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Track listing

Personnel

Sleater-Kinney *

– guitar,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

Corin Tucker Corin Lisa Tucker (born November 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney. Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously record ...

– guitar, production

Charts

References

{{Sleater-Kinney 2021 albums Sleater-Kinney albums Mom + Pop Music albums