Sleater-Kinney Dive Deep in Video for New Single ‘Untidy Creature’
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Sleater-Kinney has released a new single, “Untidy Creature,” along with a music video for the track directed by Nick Pollet. The clip features Australian freediver Amber Bourke, who holds her breath in a bathtub for the duration of the introspective song.
On the track, the closing number on the band’s forthcoming 11th album, Little Rope, Corin Tucker sings, “But here’s too much here that’s unspoken/ And there’s no tomorrow in sight/ Could you love me if I was broken/ There’s no going back tonight.”
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Of the song and video, the band said, “‘Untidy Creature’ was the first song we wrote for Little Rope, although we didn’t know it at the time; we weren’t certain we were even working on another record. We also worried it had come too easy, the song featured two elements that come very naturally to Sleater-Kinney: a big guitar riff, an even bigger vocal. But as the year wore on, and our choices and bodily autonomy shrank, our feelings about the song changed. It became a gift, somewhere to put our darkest fears, and our deepest hopes. We sometimes feel trapped or angry, and yet still we breathe.”
“For the video, we wanted imagery that spoke to the themes which permeate Little Rope: uncertainty, restlessness, urgency, all of the in-between and discomfiting states with which we’re forced to reckon. So, we came up with the idea of a woman holding her breath in a bathtub for the duration of the song, unsure of her motivations, not knowing whether she’s seeking escape, disappearance, absolution, or simply a moment of quiet and reprieve. We love the tension created by an act that defies both custom and comfort.”
Little Rope is set to drop Jan. 19 via Loma Vista. The LP will comprise 10 songs and was recorded at Flora Recording and Playback in Portland with producer John Congleton. It marks the group’s first project of original music since 2021’s Path of Wellness.
Sleater-Kinney previously shared several songs off the album, including the LP’s first single, “Hell” and “Say It Like You Mean It.” The video for “Hell,” directed by Ashley Connor, stars Miranda July in a black-and-white, ominous artistic portrayal of the song’s themes of uncertainty.
Carrie Brownstein’s mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident in Italy in 2022, while Brownstein and Tucker were working on the album that would become Little Rope. The sudden, shocking tragedy shook up the pair’s usual process, honed over many years, where they’d share vocal responsibilities from song to song.
“The last many, many albums, we tossed the singing back and forth,” Brownstein told Rolling Stone in November. “We passed that baton… I felt like I needed to play guitar. I didn’t really have the strength to sing.”
“The whole tone of the album changed when the accident happened,” Tucker added. “It was a real experience of loss. And I think that touched all of the songs.”
Sleater-Kinney will embark on a tour in support of Little Rope across North America next month, starting off in San Diego on Feb. 28, before making stops in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Portland.
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