SUPERCHUNK

Majesty Shredding

[Merge Records]

Superchunk doesn’t aspire to be Merge Records’ most innovative or best-selling act. Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance—founders of both Superchunk and Merge—leave that to the Arcade Fire, whose Suburbs album recently became the venerable North Carolina indie imprint’s first-ever chart-topper. The decidedly less ambitious Majesty Shredding, Superchunk’s first full-length in nine years, is a gift to fans who have been following the group since its Clinton-era heyday. Flush with punky guitars and grabby pop melodies, the album could have been released in the mid-’90s, just as the quartet was transitioning from the crunch of 1993’s On the Mouth to the slightly more restrained sound of 1997’s Indoor Living. As always, McCaughan sings high and hard, voicing each inscrutable lyric with unmistakable enthusiasm. On “Hot Tubes,” a rare midtempo number reminiscent of Pavement’s “Stereo,” he sings, “Yeah, we’re back where we belong”—perhaps acknowledging the consistency that is Superchunk’s greatest strength. –KP

comment closed

Copyright © 2011 M Music & Musicians Magazine ·