Superchunk : Songs in the Key of Yikes
It’s been the best part of a decade since Superchunk took their first foray into unabashedly political music with 2018’s What a Time to Be Alive; it’s safe to say that, in the intervening years, the political situation has hardly cooled down. So, Songs in the Key of Yikes, the band’s thirteenth studio release, sees them taking a fresh, thoughtful, and perhaps rather necessary sideways glance at the state of society as it exists in 2025.
One hardly needs to be an expert geopolitical analyst to see that plenty of events the world over aren’t exactly going swimmingly. But the challenge for anybody who wants to create art based on this truth is that it’s not enough to simply reiterate the sentiment that everything does, indeed, seem to be swamped in a bleak quagmire of doom and gloom. We already know that; laboring the point doesn’t help anyone. So, Superchunk are shifting gears a little, and have decided to not just acknowledge our perennial waking nightmare, but to ponder appropriate methods of surviving it. In doing so, the band breathes darkly humorous new life into commentary that might otherwise feel simply tired.
The album is made all the more engaging for being both unable and unwilling to give us any straight answers. Is delusional optimism the key to navigating this mess we’re in? That’s the stance that “Bruised Lung” seems to take, as Mac McCaughan reassures us in the refrain that “It only hurts when I breathe.” Well, that’s alright then. But a later track—the appropriately titled “Everybody Dies”—takes a torpedo to that optimism, challenging the notion that living in “a world of wishful thinking and outright lies” is sustainable, and indicating that darker thoughts will start to take hold before too long. “Stuck in a Dream” speaks abstractly of how problems can arise from clinging to comforting fantasies. “Beauty, but we’re losing light / I’ve been stuck in a dream all night,” McCaughan laments.
“Stuck in a Dream” is also the album’s high water mark instrumentally. Kicking off with a spiraling, euphoric lead guitar riff before jolting into a high energy verse, it then treats us to a chorus that rapidly cuts through several different dynamics before it winds down; firstly, an anthemic singalong section, dropping down to a gentler, slower, middle part—though one whose tense, firm drums ensure that the song never gets robbed of a backbone—and finally lurching into a jagged, pulsing conclusion, replete with thunderous “whoa”-ing that’s sure to inspire an eager and collective sense of catharsis during live performances.
Yet despite displaying such a great standard for their musicianship, the band don’t stretch themselves enough to reach those high water marks as often. Superchunk are quite rightly regarded as one of the most enduring and influential indie-punk bands ever to pick their instruments, and, to be sure, there are songs on this recording utterly befitting of that accolade—closing track “Some Green,” for example, with its sweet, warm, pop-rock tinged soloing that sees the whole record soar up to a gorgeously feel-good conclusion. Or “Care Less,” a sublime slice of ’90s-style, chugging, mid-tempo slacker-rock. But both of these tunes—and Superchunk at their best—feature a kind of transcendent restlessness trying to ram its way out of the music (even on mellower releases like Wild Loneliness). Songs in the Key of Yikes, however, often feels cozy and cute, but also a little less manic, perhaps a little too comfortable where it is. As such, it’s unlikely to dethrone your favorite Superchunk album. But, at its peak, it’s still got enough rugged soul blaring out of it to reaffirm Superchunk’s position as one of the greatest rock bands of the past 30 years.
Label: Merge
Year: 2025
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Superchunk : Songs in the Key of Yikes
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