This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
On the list of Things I Never Thought I’d See, a major-label album from riot grrrl goddess and indie-punk icon Kathleen Hanna was right up there next to children’s books by Madonna.
But on this third album from her electroclash trio Le Tigre, the former Bikini Kill fronter reminds us there’s a big difference between trading up and selling out. Hanna hasn’t abandoned her overtly political and feminist beliefs on This Island — one spin of the antiwar sample pastiche New Kicks will end that discussion. Nor has she diluted Le Tigre’s playfully wry mix of fuzzy electropop synth-cheese, Brassy-style hip-pop and brash, snot-nosed punk. These days, however, she is self-assured enough to cover The Pointer Sisters’ I’m So Excited unironically and deliver a sincere introspective ballad like Sixteen.
So let the punk-purist hypocrites complain; that just leaves more room for the rest of us to enjoy Hanna and co.’s Island.
