Superchunk – What A Time To Be Alive

On their 11th album since 1990, these North Carolina indie rock icons sound as fresh & motivated as they did on the legendary “Slack Motherfucker” single, attacking the songs with the vitality of teenage exhuberance. These are short, sweet and succinct rockers; raucous & raw pop/punk melodies with infectious hooks. Contributions come from of magnetic Fields, Waxahatchee, A Giant Dog. have played with Seam, Portastatic, The Mountain Goats. Recalls bands like Redd Kross, Archers Of Loaf, Weezer, Nada Surf, Jeff The Brotherhood, Scrawl, GRMLN. The songs punch you in the face with rockin’, pertinent messages of politics, love and the mess we’ve made of humankind. “What A Time To Be Alive” finds Superchunk back at the top of their game, churning out quick bursts of indie rock that’s both fun and meaningful. Recommended.

Here is a link to the vinyl reviews vinyl quality review of this specific pressing: https://vinylreviews.com/album/what-a-time-to-be-alive/

So far the best and only album I've heard from 2018. Enjoyable, somewhat politically potent indie punk. I had no idea B&N were releasing an autographed edition, so I bought it on the fly a few weeks ago in San Antonio. B+.

Another great record ruined by bad pressing quality. It's probably their most visceral album in years - although I also liked the two previous ones as they cleared their sound a little bit and entered a more mature stage. This one's full of rage, cymbals' crashes, distortion, fuzz and grungy guitars. What's too bad is that the vinyl master is thin and too trebly and adds surface noise on top of that. While most of the time, surface noise is annoying on quiet records, here that's pretty much the contrary, clics and pops come on top of a sound that is already full of quirks. Too bad for this great band (and as they are also their label's owners, they should have been more careful about pressing quality).

Is anyone else's copy of the vinyl record missing the digital album?

time to hang up their collective hats. a tireless mashing of chunkery that sounds dated and unapologetically forgetful and dull. the meter marches towards urgency but stains the brain with sepia colored tones. to make matters worse their vinyl pressings on Merge Records are of such low quality that buying this on vinyl will be a double whammy of regret.