Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Sleater-Kinney, "One More Hour"

22 Days to Find a Home



"I thought about this tape, Crazy Feeling, and I wondered if I would play it when I got back. I kept hearing a song in my head, the first song on the tape, Sleater-Kinney's 'One More Hour." I didn't know if I would play that song when I got back, or whether I'd ever want to hear it again. But ever since Renée died, I'd been thinking about 'One More Hour,' the saddest Sleater-Kinney song ever. It was blaring in my mind all week, whether I was at the funeral home, or trying to sleep, or sitting on the floor waiting for Richmond to call and say it was all a mistake. It was all around in my head, like the train rumble Al Pacino hears in The Godfather right before he shoots the Turk.

'One More Hour' is a punk-rock song where Corin Tucker sings about how she has to leave in one more hour. Once she leaves the room, she can't come back. She doesn't want to go, and she tries to talk her way out of it. But Carrie Brownstein sings to her in the background vocal, telling her it's over. The way their voices interact is like nothing else I've ever heard. Corin sings about walking out of a place she can never return to, leaving something she never wanted to let go, trying to haggle with someone who can't talk back. The guitars try to hold her in check, but she screams right through them, refusing to go quietly because it's already too late for a graceful exit. Corin snarls and she stalls, all for a little bit, just a little more time."

--Rob Sheffield, Love is a Mix Tape

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