Superchunk

Leaves in the Gutter

(Merge)

Record Review by Kevan Peterson

Grungy guitar rock is just not as exciting as it used to be.  Case in point, Superchunk’s new EP, Leaves in the Gutter.  This five song EP uses gritty guitars to create rough rock songs that don’t quite carry the catchiness to make them memorable or a uniqueness to make them standout from the massive catalog of similar rock songs, including those already in Superchunks echelon.   Listening to this album is like eating at a reasonable diner that you know you won’t be going back to.  It will fill the void, but it’s nothing to travel out of your way for.

Superchunk is perhaps growing nostalgic for their glory days as they echo the sounds that made them successful in the nineties.  Of course if you are a fan boy of the band, then anything that the band does is a must have, but for passive listeners or newbie’s, putting your money towards something from their earlier catalog may be a better use of funds. 
The opening track, “Learned to Surf” is the most memorable of the album.  Perhaps that is also because they play a stripped down acoustic version of the song at the end, which feels a bit like an unnecessary addition, although they may as well fill up all that additional space on the disc with something.  “Misfits and Mistakes,” the albums second track offers little in the way of originality.  It feels as if it was released ten years too late, as it would have squeezed nicely onto the track list of any old Superchunk album and relegated to the shelf next to Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney when these bands were heavily treading in this arena of rock. 
“Screw it Up,” continues to rock hard, in that lazy nineties kind of way, with meandering guitar solos punctuating muddy, bleeding rhythms.  “Knock, Knock, Knock,” is not the set up to a joke but rather the last new track on the album before the band launches into their acustic summary of “Learned to Surf.” 

Fans of the band are drooling, I’m sure, but the rest of us may be more prone to wearing thermals under our t-shirts in the middle of Summer, than to putting this album on repeat.