6. The Hot Rock (1999)

Having proven their bonafides regarding pop concision and stardom, Sleater-Kinney doubled back toward a calmer, more introspective sound. Brownstein had become a devotee of the Go-Betweens, the beloved Australian pop-rock act who were in the midst of an extended hiatus. Even without hearing the lush, textured approach enter the band’s tonal repertoire, it’s easy to picture how the Go-Betweens appealed to Brownstein on a biographical level: like Sleater-Kinney, the band featured two singer-songwriters, each with his particular approach. As a result of her McLennan/Forster scholarship, Brownstein adapted her own approach for the making of The Hot Rock, increasingly applying a multi-string attack, as well as a new delicacy in her playing and singing.

The Hot Rock’s title contributes to this more oblique sensibility. While rock heads could view it as a tip to the Rolling Stones, the title track makes it clear that the primary connection is to the Robert Redford heist comedy of the same name. McLennan was an inveterate film freak; it’s entirely possible that “The Hot Rock” was a sly homage on Sleater-Kinney’s part. In time, the entire band would collaborate on the Go-Betweens’ 2000 comeback album The Friends Of Rachel Worth, with Weiss drumming on every cut.

Even in softer form, the band’s chemistry is unassailable. Tucker and Brownstein perform a virtuoso ping-pong on “Burn, Don’t Freeze!,” tossing a descending figure back and forth. In “Get Up” (filmed by Miranda July as the band’s first music video), Tucker talks her desire out in classic Gordonian form, modulating her signature trills into something quite wistful. At one point, someone interjects the loveliest “whoo!” — whether it’s Carrie or Corin, I can’t tell. But it doesn’t really matter; they’d weathered both a breakup and a brighter spotlight, their sonic synchronicity only gaining force. Elsewhere, on the ICU love song “The Size Of Our Love,” Brownstein deploys the astounding opening couplet “Our love is the size of/ These tumors inside us.” She also sings lead on “Memorize Your Lines” (another film reference?), and as on “The Size Of Our Love,” the production is juiced with a new element: strings. While her vocals tend toward the placid on the record, she’s assisted by the usual guitar intricacy and Tucker’s able vocal support. “A Quarter To Three,” the final track, reaches even further back in history, as the band channels Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang” with the backgrounded “ooh! ahh!” chant.