SUPERCHUNK

What A Time To Be Alive 8/10

superchunk’s 11th studio record has all the hallmarks of a superchunk album: clever and incisive lyrics, bouncy rhythms, gnarly guitars, endlessly catchy hooks delivered in Mac McCaughan’s reedy voice. But this time through, every single note is animated by the band’s social and political outrage. “The scum, the same, the fucking lies,” McCaughan shouts on the title track. “Oh, what a time to be alive!” It’s their angriest, jitteriest and most aggressive album since their early-’90s heyday, and on “Reagan Youth” and “All For You” (with its hostile chorus, “Fight me!”) superchunk sound like a hardcore band half their age.