Sleater-Kinney Come Up Against the ‘Limits of Denial’ on New Song ‘This Time’

Sleater-Kinney have dropped a new song, “This Time,” one of three fresh additions to the upcoming deluxe edition of their latest album, Little Rope. 

“This Time” is a pensive, steady tune driven by warbling keys and keening guitar, though it does briefly kick into double-time rock and roll over drive. In a statement, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker said “This Time” was the last song they wrote for Little Rope and also “the last to get cut once we decided we preferred the evenness and succinctness of ten songs.”

The pair added, “About a person reaching the limits of denial, ‘This Time’ exists on the thematic edges of Little Rope, an album wrestling with loss and its aftermath.” 

“This Time” follows the previously-released Little Rope bonus track, “Here Today,” which arrived last month. Little Rope Deluxe is set to arrive Oct. 4 via Loma Vista Recordings. The expanded track list will feature one more new song — “Nothing to Lose” — as well as a trio of live songs from a performance in Melbourne, Australia, and the previously-released Frayed Rope Sessions. 

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Sleater-Kinney released Little Rope back in January, and it recently earned a spot on Rolling Stone’s list of the best albums of 2024 so far. In an interview with Rolling Stone late last year, Brownstein and Tucker spoke about creating the record in the aftermath of the tragic deaths of Brownstein’s mother and stepfather in a car crash. 

“This album, to me, signals the next era of Sleater-Kinney,” Brownstein said. “It feels like a reclamation of all that I love about playing music with Corin. And so, I’m going to be very careful with that and try to enjoy it, because you don’t know when it could end.”