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Editorial Reviews
After seven years without a CD release, Superchunk return with a five-track EP just in time for their 20th birthday and their upcoming performance at Coachella. This release is in the mold of their early 7-inches and between album EP masterpieces. Four new tracks plus last year's vinyl-only hit single, "Misfits & Mistakes".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Andyp
Format:Audio CD
Mac explained somewhere that the songs on this EP sounded like they were "from another era", and so they were culled together for this 5-song EP. Dead on. Tracks 1, 2 and 4 sound like b-sides from No Pocky for Kitty or On the Mouth, and return us to a happier time and era when Superchunk ruled the college radio airwaves. A very worthy addition to the still growing Superchunk library.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As Superchunk singer/guitarist Mac MacCaughan has matured as a songwriter, there has been a slow drift away from bracing indiepunk anthems toward more emotionally nuanced fare. In their early days, Superchunk blueprinted so many anthemic 3-minute squalls of guitar noise that it almost seemed too easy to like them, yet they remained a resolutely underground confection. Later albums expanded their emotional palette.
"Leaves In The Gutter" brings it all back to the joyous clatter and wiry riffs that ignited my love for this band in the first place. Opening with "Learned To Surf's" singed guitar vamp, it is obvious that this is not going to be "Here's To Shutting Up Part 2." "Misfits and Mistakes," a song from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie that was left off of the soundtrack, follows "Learned To Surf" with a similarly blistering attack, MacCaughan shouting "Say you will! Say you will!" -- a classic Superchunk refrain -- before a distorted guitar squeals into the foreground and washes the chorus away. (An aside: Superchunk has always contributed songs to oddball movies, such as "Shallow End" from The Jerky Boys II and "Does Your Hometown Care?" from Suburbia. While hardly memorable cinematic milestones, it all feeds into the band's populist, non-elitist mythology.) The following track, "Screw It Up," is easily the most melodic, "mellow" song on the EP, replete with tremmed-out guitars and a tuneful progression that recalls some of the more melodic moments of their "Indoor Living" album (1997). Its an easy standout for me with its frantically-strummed acoustic guitar buried so far back in the mix you almost (but don't quite) miss it. "Leaves In The Gutter's" second to last song, "Knock Knock Knock" opens with a rapid, staccato drum fill before unleashing another classic Superchunk hook-filled chorus. One thing the band has always shined at is following a memorable hook with an even more memorable hook -- it's a songwriting strategy we could all learn from. The EP closes out with an acoustic take of opening song "Learned To Surf," the obvious single off of "Leaves In The Gutter," Mac sounding as if he's trying not to wake the neighbors while crouched over a latenight microphone in a dim bedroom, on a country road somewhere near the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. It's a nice comedown from such an invigorating EP. It leaves you -- as any good EP should -- wanting more.
"Leaves In The Gutter" brings it all back to the joyous clatter and wiry riffs that ignited my love for this band in the first place. Opening with "Learned To Surf's" singed guitar vamp, it is obvious that this is not going to be "Here's To Shutting Up Part 2." "Misfits and Mistakes," a song from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie that was left off of the soundtrack, follows "Learned To Surf" with a similarly blistering attack, MacCaughan shouting "Say you will! Say you will!" -- a classic Superchunk refrain -- before a distorted guitar squeals into the foreground and washes the chorus away. (An aside: Superchunk has always contributed songs to oddball movies, such as "Shallow End" from The Jerky Boys II and "Does Your Hometown Care?" from Suburbia. While hardly memorable cinematic milestones, it all feeds into the band's populist, non-elitist mythology.) The following track, "Screw It Up," is easily the most melodic, "mellow" song on the EP, replete with tremmed-out guitars and a tuneful progression that recalls some of the more melodic moments of their "Indoor Living" album (1997). Its an easy standout for me with its frantically-strummed acoustic guitar buried so far back in the mix you almost (but don't quite) miss it. "Leaves In The Gutter's" second to last song, "Knock Knock Knock" opens with a rapid, staccato drum fill before unleashing another classic Superchunk hook-filled chorus. One thing the band has always shined at is following a memorable hook with an even more memorable hook -- it's a songwriting strategy we could all learn from. The EP closes out with an acoustic take of opening song "Learned To Surf," the obvious single off of "Leaves In The Gutter," Mac sounding as if he's trying not to wake the neighbors while crouched over a latenight microphone in a dim bedroom, on a country road somewhere near the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. It's a nice comedown from such an invigorating EP. It leaves you -- as any good EP should -- wanting more.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By J.P. Hibbs.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Yep, it's Superchunk, back in true form doing what they do best and it never gets old. I don't think these guys have ever made a bad record. Catch them live and you won't be disappointed either, they put on the best, most energetic, live show I've ever seen.
Listmania!
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