Superchunk: Come Pick Me Up : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

You can't keep yelling forever. After ten years and nine albums of pogoing and power chords, Superchunk find themselves looking for a way to keep their roaring indie-rock anthems interesting on more than a kinetic level. Their solution here is to sacrifice a little force for a lot of depth. These days, they're as interested in micromanaging their sounds as in rocking out, which makes Come Pick Me Up improve as you turn it up. Subtle acoustic textures emerge from beneath great big distorted riffs; odd guitar and drum treatments underscore smart, asymmetrical song structures; unconventionally deployed strings and horns complement a newfound lyrical tenderness. And the biggest change is in frontman Mac McCaughan's singing: Where he used to bellow through every song, he liberates his sweet, tremulous tenor and lets the mike do the work. The band is as energetic as ever, but some of that energy is going into warmth instead of speed. (RS 820)

DOUGLAS WOLK