Reunion albums are fraught with danger. A lot of recent band reunions seem to have been based more around a cash grab than any real artistic endeavour and albums produced out of these reunions mostly sound like a band unsuccessfully trying to replicate their sound and chemistry of years passed.

Sleater-Kinney’s No Cities to Love not only avoids sounding forced, it is quite possibly the band’s finest album.

Rather than the ten year hiatus between albums lessening the unique chemistry between Corin, Carrie and Janet, their sound is now tighter and more determined than where they left off with 2005’s The Woods. Lyrically, like a lot of Carrie Brownstein’s writing on the album, ‘A New Wave’ deals with the frustrations of fame and appreciating those moments when “No one here is taking notice”.

A deceptively complex song, it’s filled with contradictions. Its upbeat and incredibly catchy opening is matched with the first line “Well every day I throw a little party”, before three lines later asking “Should I leap or go on living, living?” The buoyant tempo is abruptly ended in the middle, as Corin and Carrie’s guitars furiously break it apart over Janet’s brutal drumbeat, before defiantly returning to the chorus with a stripped back arrangement. Picking up where it started, it ends on a long, exuberant fadeout. ‘A New Wave’ is a standout track on No Cities to Love.

Tim Leggoe’s highly informed slant on substantial pop culture matters has its own corner of the internet, www.marvelpresentssalo.com

He can, is, and by all accounts should be hassled on Twitter via @leggoet