Today's featured shit

Superchunk have been around for so long that I bet they first tried to call it a maxisingle. There are five tracks. “Learned to Surf” leads off and should remind you of Superchunk of yore. They’ve aged a bit. They almost sound a bit tired in the vocals, but the accompaniment is full of energy and proves that you can recreate the 1990s sound without being boring.

“Misfits & Mistakes” offers more of the same. Maybe it’s a little better. “Screw It Up” is a lot better. Every track on this EP is worth a listen, really.

“Knock Knock Knock” maintains the same trend: Mac McCaughan seems a little tired, but musically the track is superb.

The last track is the acoustic demo of “Learned to Surf.” Back in the proverbial day we called this “Unplugged.” It sounds better than the juiced up version, but really these are minor quibbles. We should be so lucky to have any new Superchunk to listen to at all!

It’s another mid-1990s fuzzy guitar occasionally female-fronted last-name-Deal knockoff. That’s fine. I always want more pseudo-Amps music. “29 Acts of Love” is as good a song as any, I suppose. Stay away from the longer tracks, though. A lot of these songs run a bit more than they should.

“Sleep” is an example of this, clocking in at 5:09, but the melody makes it worth it. Still, the tempo could be increased a bit without taking anything away from the song, and we’d all be better off. “Sad Eyes” sounds like Suffrajett. It has some hootin’ and hollerin’, but otherwise it’s still a bit tired.

“Love Songs” has smoother guitar and reminds me of Catherine Wheel. It’s understandable considering how the rest of the album sounds. All this album does is remind me of how depressing the music was when I came of age. That’s not exactly the best selling point.

Pass.

They’re definitely going for that Neko Case alt-country thing. These songs have all kinds of instruments of them, including trombone, trumpet and glockenspiel, which is much easier to type than to say. “He Went Down” puts it together fairly well. The melody on this track is weird. You can’t really tell when a line ends, because the last word always ends on an up note.

“How Many Hours Can a Cat Stay Asleep” is a piano-based ballad with sobering lyrics about cocaine and fish and other nouns of emotion. It’s very beautiful at what it’s trying to be. It is the only track longer than three minutes, too. “Allison” is a waltz and features a lot of piano.

“He Said That I Was Crazy” is peppy and fun to listen to. The backing vocals give it a bit of a Britpop feel. But the song that puts it all together is “Just Another Feeling.” The melody makes perfect sense and does a lot of what a Billy Joel song would do. Who needs any stinkin’ guitars? Not Doctors & Dealers during this ditty.

There’s two tracks. The first one is called “Sharks.” It has nothing to do with hockey. It is mature three-piece indie pop with a female lead singer and late-1990s leanings.

“American Cheese” is the second track. It is short. It has a bit of a Portland sound to it but otherwise is a lot like “Sharks.” Both are easy to listen to but not uniquely remarkable.