Album review: Superchunk – Wild Loneliness

The name may make them sound like a superhero from The Goonies, but alt.rock veterans Superchunk probably wouldn’t make the top tier in Marvel or DC’s production of Indie-Rockers Assemble! or The Commercial Suicide Squad. After all, despite a string of great albums throughout the ’90s, their principled refusal to cash in during the post-grunge gold rush meant they remained underground when their peers were going supernova.

Musically, at least, that move has paid dividends. Wild Loneliness is the fourth and best album Superchunk have recorded since returning to active service in 2010, and even stacks up next to classics from earlier in their career such as Here’s Where The Strings Come In or No Pocky For Kitty.

More optimistic than its immediate predecessor, 2018’s righteously anti-Trump What A Time To Be Alive, Wild Loneliness bursts with upbeat indie-rock bangers such as This Night and Highly Suspect, all beguiling brass and driving riffs, that reveal them as trusty guardians of the recipe for indie rock the way your Mum used to bake it.

But, like all the best superheroes, they can still pack a punch. So, while Endless Summer sounds like a fuzzy ’90s feel-good hit of the beaches-and-barbecues season, it’s actually a stark global warming warning, pondering, 'Is this the year the leaves don’t lose their colour?'

Superchunk themselves certainly remain evergreen. A lengthy list of collaborators – Teenage Fanclub, Camera Obscura, REM’s Mike Mills, Sharon Van Etten – show the respect they’ve earned over the decades. But it’s these songs that prove that every superhero – even under-appreciated ones – has their day, and Wild Loneliness is more than enough to make you believe this band can still fly…

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr, Jimmy Eat World

Wild Loneliness is released on February 25 via Merge.