Feminist Sweepstakes

Le Tigre's second full-length release delivers the rollerskate jams, sampler-punk, and political dance trax you've come to expect from the trio, and it ups the ante for electro-conceptual, feminist pop music everywhere. This time around the Le Tigre sound seems influenced equally by basement recordings and top-forty electronic production, as sub-bass and breakbeats figure prominently in the loud, live-show oriented songwriting on the 12+ tracks of "Feminist Sweepstakes." Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman, and new band member J.D. Samson each have solo vocal moments on the album and elsewhere they gang-up, finish one another's sentences, and exchange insights. Even when the songs veer into introspection or absurdity, politically complicated, feminist perspectives inform Le Tigre's lyrical approach to their subject matter. Surprise guests galore.