Nearly three years after One Beat, Sleater-Kinney released The Woods, their seventh full-legnth album, today. I'm six songs into it at the moment, and it's fantastic - more sonically adventurous than its predecessor, but at least as overtly and cunningly politicized. There are shades of Sonic Youth in Carrie Brownstein' s bouncing, undulating guitar lines, but one also gets the sense from songs like "Modern Girl" that S-K could do "Arcade Fire" better than The Arcade Fire. The Woods is a dark, angry, bitter record, but it's also a beautiful one.

Also released today are Common's sixth LP, the Kanye-produced Be, and Steven Malkmus's third solo album Face The Truth which i'm listening to at the moment but don't have anything to say about yet. The lead-off single from Be, "The Corner" is amazing, and tracks like "Chi City," and "The Food" are just as good. This is the album everybody's been waiting for Common to make since Resurrection. Haven't listeneed to the Malkus yet, but i'll get around to it soon.