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For all the noisy bluster involving plastic barrettes, thrift-store guitars, and caterwauling political catchphrases, Sleater-Kinney have always been pragmatic about their music. The group's self-titled debut got by on ferocity alone. But each successive release has exhibited a dramatic step forward as youthful exuberance gives way to melody and poise. One Beat is the trio's most assured work yet. A jubilant blast of tambourines, theremin, and Corin Tucker's rubber-band vocals usher in the spiky "Oh!," the Strokes' locker-room diffidence mingles with Sonic Youth's angular cool on "Prisstina," and the title track, all urgent wailing and power chords, rumbles with pure excitement. The rest of the album isn't far behind. --Aidin Vaziri

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Sleater-Kinney's musical manifesto is a wake-up call to not only the old boy network, but to young women who find themselves increasingly at odds with it. Helmed by Corin Tucker (Heaven's To Betsy) and Carrie Brownstein (Excuse 17), this trio is not only furious and formidable, but genuinely significant. On a musical landscape populated by open sewers like The 7 Mary Bush Pilots Idiot-Grunge Revival or Hootie's Home for the Terminally Bland and Sensitive, Tucker's spine-shivering voice shrieking "I wanna be your Joey Ramone / Pictures of me on your bedroom door" cracks through the narcotic haze of mediocrity like a rat tail on a bare bottom. When she declares herself "The Queen of Rock & Roll," I'm inclined to smile and think "If only." Cultural importance aside, this rocks. Their eerily dead-on Sonic Youth snippet in "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" had me checking the credits for a Kim Gordon cameo, while "Little Mouth," "Stay Where You Are" and the incendiary title track are some of the most raging chunks of punk found around these parts since Greg Sage shook the rain off his rubbers. More than recommended: required. --John Chandler