Middle-Aged Mom Rock

Kill My Blues is the second album from former Sleater-Kinney vocalist Corin Tucker and her new group The Corin Tucker Band. Tucker referred to the new album as “middle-aged mom rock” which is a pretty accurate description.

Opener “Groundhog Day” is the song on the album that initially stands out as a real hit. It sounds like a song you’d hear somewhere on a soundtrack from a movie like “American Pie” or some other early 2000’s movie about partying. While it sounds fun, fast and upbeat, the lyrics focus on what she considers a standstill in the women’s rights movement: “I’ve just woken up / Like Rip Van Winkle in a denim mini skirt / Wait, you see, now, I took a rest / I took some time to be a mom and have some kids / What’s up y’all? I thought we had a plan / Gonna move things forward / for us and women round the globe / Awake now, outside it frozen / Instead of going forward, where the hell we going now?”

Tucker’s voice does sound fine-tuned and skilled. She kills it in “Joey” with that wail and in “Outgoing Message” she’s soft and the pace is slower compared to the rest of the album.

“Outgoing Message” also triumphs with Mike Clark on the keyboards (he plays guitar too)  and almost sounds like something Motion City Soundtrack would use in one of their own songs. This is in contrast to the keyboards in “Constance,” which sound a bit eerie and something like The Doors might have used in their time.

Corin Tucker said she’s come to realize she isn’t Wonder Woman and that she’s a “regular human with regular capabilities.” That’s mostly true but most people aren’t in rock bands, especially not in their late-30’s and especially not as a frontwoman. Where will Tucker go once she hits her 40’s? More mom rock and riot-grrrl? Hopefully something different.