Sleater-Kinney Releases Blistering New Single “Untidy Creature”

Sleater-Kinney have released Untidy Creature, the blistering new single and closer from their anticipated new album, Little Rope, out January 19 on Loma Vista. The song’s remarkable one-shot music video, directed by Nick Pollet, features celebrated Australian free-diver, Amber Bourke, holding her breath underwater for the song’s three-and-a-half minute duration.

Of the song and video, the band shared through a press release: “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 feeling 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.”