{"id":6689,"date":"2018-04-17T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T02:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=6689"},"modified":"2018-05-03T09:47:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T13:47:29","slug":"superchunk-what-a-time-to-be-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/superchunk-what-a-time-to-be-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Superchunk <br>What a Time to Be Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/superchunk-what_a_time.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6690\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/superchunk-what_a_time.jpg\" alt=\"Superchunk, What a Time to Be Alive\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/superchunk-what_a_time.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/superchunk-what_a_time-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s fair to say that over their near 30-year career\u00a0Superchunk\u00a0has never made a bad album. That\u2019s notable for just about any band, let alone one completely left to their own devices and not driven by any commercial concerns. (Of course, that latter point actually probably has a great deal to do with their consistency, but I digress.) All that said, one could be forgiven if they overlooked or felt indifferent toward some of the band\u2019s early-2000s releases. It\u2019s not that those records didn\u2019t have their merits, far from it, rather the band was moving forward, and by default those records lacked some of the youthful vigor and verve that made\u00a0Superchunk\u00a0one of the defining bands of the 1990s underground.<\/p>\n<p>Now jump to 2018 and the American pre-apocalypse, and you&#8217;ll encounter a band with a renewed sense of urgency and an astounding sense of energy and purpose that belies their collective middle-age.\u00a0<i>What a Time to Be Alive<\/i> (Merge Records) is not only a record that every\u00a0Superchunk\u00a0fan should love, it\u2019s a genuine artistic statement that should be embraced by anyone that appreciates good rock music. Songs like \u201cBreak the Glass,\u201d \u201cI Got Cut,\u201d the political-screed-as-hardcore-history-lesson &#8220;Reagan Youth,&#8221; and the title track rush out of the speakers and swoop up the listener in a punk rock grandeur on par with \u201cPrecision Auto,&#8221; &#8220;Hyper Enough,&#8221; or &#8220;Slack Motherfucker.&#8221; Of course, now is not a time for slacking, and\u00a0Superchunk\u00a0know that.<\/p>\n<p>Mac McCaughan\u2019s lyrics have never been literal, yet he\u2019s always managed to get his point across. And while there\u2019s nothing here that is so expressly political you\u2019ll mistake it for a Crass screed, there\u2019s also no denying the specter of arguably the most malignant political force America has encountered in its modern incarnation. McCaughan and\u00a0Superchunk\u00a0refuse to despair, though; they know exactly what the hammer is for, to paraphrase one\u00a0lyric, and offer an album that functions not so much as soundtrack for the dubious &#8220;#Reistance,\u201d but rather for waking up and existing with a renewed sense of purpose, however one chooses to personally articulate it, in a time where that&#8217;s maybe easier said than done. Look, a record like this helps; it&#8217;s just that simple.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, that our current political hellscape was perhaps a genesis for such a record should not be viewed as unfortunate. This is precisely the kind of \u201cpolitical\u201d album we so desperately need at this time. It\u2019s inspiring not only in its messaging and its songwriting, but likewise as representative of the idea that four people can play music together for decades, skirt the conventions demanded of them by the market, by the mainstream, and even, at times, by their own audience and make genuinely potent and meaningful art. Viva la\u00a0Superchunk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s fair to say that over their near 30-year career Superchunk has never made a bad album. That\u2019s notable for just about any band, let alone one completely left<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,336,27],"class_list":["post-6689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-merge-records","tag-superchunk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Superchunk What a Time to Be Alive - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/superchunk-what-a-time-to-be-alive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Superchunk What a Time to Be Alive - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s fair to say that over their near 30-year career Superchunk has never made a bad album. 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