Call the Doctor

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the album by Sleater-Kinney. For the song by J. J. Cale, see Naturally (J. J. Cale album).

Call the Doctor
Studio album by
Sleater-Kinney
ReleasedMarch 25, 1996
RecordedSeptember 1995
GenrePunk rock
Length30:04
LabelChainsaw
ProducerJohn Goodmanson, Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney chronology
Sleater-Kinney
(1995) 		Call the Doctor
(1996) 		Dig Me Out
(1997)

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 recorded in four days.[1] According to singer and guitarist Corin Tucker, the writing was inspired by a "crap" job she had and how people are "consumerized and commodified" by society.[1] The album features no bass player. As Tucker explained, "We started writing songs with two guitars, and we liked the way it sounded. It gives us a lot of freedom to write these lines that go back and forth."[2] The album is occasionally considered to be Sleater-Kinney's first proper album because Tucker and co-vocalist and guitarist Carrie Brownstein had left their previous bands, Heavens to Betsy and Excuse 17, at the time of its recording.[3]

Call the Doctor was produced by

Nielsen SoundScan.[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
[9]
MusicHound Rock4.5/5[10]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[11]
Pitchfork8.6/10[12]
Rolling Stone[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
Select3/5[15]
Spin8/10[16]

Call the Doctor received acclaim from music journalists. Charles Taylor of

The Boston Phoenix compared the album favorably to Heavens to Betsy's Calculated, stating that Call the Doctor "is in no way a mellowed piece of work. What makes it the fullest, most mature album any riot grrrl performer has produced isn't Tucker abandoning her anger (the idea that anger is incompatible with maturity is a facile one), but rather Tucker starting (reluctantly) to register the contingencies and compromises that her ideologically based rage is inadequate to confront".[17] Similarly, prominent music critic Robert Christgau praised the album's raucous energy, commenting: "Powered by riffs that seem unstoppable even though they're not very fast, riding melodies whose irresistibility renders them barely less harsh, Corin Tucker's enormous voice never struggles more inspirationally against the world outside than when it's facing down the dilemmas of the interpersonal—dilemmas neither eased nor defined by her gender preferences, dilemmas as bound up with family as they are with sex."[8]

AllMusic reviewer Jason Ankeny commented: "Forget the riot grrrl implications inherent in the trio's music — Call the Doctor is pure, undiluted punk, and it's brilliant".[4] Johnny Huston, writing for Spin, remarked that Call the Doctor "trades sex-worker role-playing, doll parts, gender-bending, and other common female-rock tropes for stories of everyday struggle [...] Sleater-Kinney proves that punk still offers new ways to say no".[16] The album appeared at number three in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1996.[18] In 2010, Call the Doctor was ranked number 49 in the list of the 100 greatest albums of the nineties by the editors of Rolling Stone.[19]

Track listing

All music is composed by Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker

No.TitleLength
1."Call the Doctor"2:30
2."Hubcap"2:25
3."Little Mouth"1:44
4."Anonymous"2:29
5."Stay Where You Are"2:24
6."Good Things"3:10
7."I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone"2:37
8."Taking Me Home"2:35
9."Taste Test"3:00
10."My Stuff"2:33
11."I'm Not Waiting"2:21
12."Heart Attack"2:12
Total length:30:04

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Call the Doctor's album notes.[20]

Macfarlane was incorrectly credited with vocals on "Taking Me Home" (she actually sang on "Taste Test")

References

  1. ^ a b Inoue, Todd S. (March 21, 1996). "Portland's Sleater-Kinney is maniacally vulnerable". Metro. Metro Newspapers. Archived from the original on January 13, 1997. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  2. ^ Morris, Chris (March 30, 1996). "Declarations of Independents". Billboard. Vol. 108, no. 13. p. 112. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  3. ^ Corcoran, Clifford J. "Sleater-Kinney". Trouser Press. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c Ankeny, Jason. "Call the Doctor – Sleater-Kinney". AllMusic. Archived from the original on February 26, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  5. ^ Lindsay, Cam (January 22, 2015). "The Drama You've Been Craving". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on January 24, 2015. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
  6. ^ Cromelin, Richard (March 16, 1997). "An All-Grrrl Band at Heart". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  7. ^ "Unfinished Business". NPR. February 3, 2015. Archived from the original on July 27, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0312245603
    . Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  9. ISBN 978-1846098567
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1578590612
    .
  11. ^ Warren, Bruce (April 28, 1996). "Sleater-Kinney: Call the Doctor (Chainsaw Records)". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  12. ^ Pelly, Jenn (October 24, 2014). "Sleater-Kinney: Start Together". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  13. ^ Ali, Lorraine (June 13, 1996). "Call the Doctor". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2007.
  14. ISBN 978-0743201698
    . Retrieved January 10, 2011.
  15. ^ "Sleater-Kinney: Sleater-Kinney and Call the Doctor". Select. No. 97. July 1998. p. 82.
  16. ^ a b Huston, Johnny (March 1996). "Sleater-Kinney: Call the Doctor". Spin. Vol. 11, no. 12. pp. 110–111. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  17. The Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original
    on February 1, 2010. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  18. ^ "The 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 25, 1997. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  19. ISBN 978-0061779206. Archived
    from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  20. ^ Call the Doctor (CD booklet). Sleater-Kinney. Portland, Oregon: Chainsaw Records. 1996. CHSW #13.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)

External links

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