In Stores Now: Majesty Shredding by Superchunk

Advertisement for Lane Cedar Chests from LIFE magazine, May 2, 1955

After a decade-long hiatus, indie-punk originals Superchunk have come back with the best album anyone could expect them to deliver in 2010. Since the band decided to take an extended break to focus on business and family after 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, only frontman Mac McCaughan has kept writing music (as far as I can tell). Consequently, the feisty guitar-pop of Majesty Shredding comes across as the result of McCaughan luring the band back together with some new songs he wanted to record. The album has the focus of the band's McCaughan-driven early albums and less of the uneven, scattershot feel of the collaborative, later-period Superchunk.

Majesty Shredding is hardly a one-note album, though - Superchunk makes the most of the lessons they learned in the trial-and-error years of expanding and changing their original pop-punk sound. Album highlight "My Gap Feels Weird" is excellent off-kilter pop, "Fractures in Plaster" brings back some of that Foolish-era slow-burn drama, "Rosemarie" is muscular folk-pop, and album closer "Everything at Once" even flirts with a shoegaze sound. Little embellishments like the horn section on single "Digging for Something" and the layered vocals on the chorus of "Slow Drip" keep you actively listening and catching the album's abundance of great hooks.

Superchunk never sound "old" on Majesty Shredding, but the album's lyrics do a good job of evoking the energy of youth in a way that is equal parts in-the-moment and nostalgic for times past. The only time that the songs let me down at all is when they go to "simple and dumb", like the endless repetition of the title phrase in "Crossed Wires". The best indication of Superchunk having a great awareness of their strengths and how to play to them might be the use of the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle for the backing vocals on the mighty "Digging for Something". Darnielle's distinctive whine is not a natural choice for pop harmonizing, but his sharp tone complements McCaughan's own strained tenor to make the song's melody really pop. Check it out - it's probably my favorite single of the year so far.

"Digging for Something" by Superchunk