Superchunk: Come Pick Me Up

The prolific and venerable Superchunk doesn't get enough credit for its stylistic innovations: Sure, it's primarily known for terse, guitar-driven indie-rock, but you can't deny that its albums have tested the boundaries of the genre, from defiantly scrappy anthems (the classic "Slack Motherfucker") to structurally complex, elegant ballads ("Driveway To Driveway," from 1994's great Foolish). The individual ingredients rarely seem like much on the surface—frontman Mac McCaughan, in particular, is often maligned for his high, thin voice—until they're put together in deceptive, disarming ways. That said, Superchunk's most recent works, 1997's Indoor Living and the new Come Pick Me Up, never quite jell as albums, meeting too close to halfway between rough-edged rock and stately balladry. The result on Come Pick Me Up is a few great songs which use that formula to excellent effect—there's a great guitar hook and nice use of strings on "1000 Pounds," while "Good Dreams" gets more hypnotic and propulsive as it goes along—and a bunch of material that's passable, but that never connects despite effective moments and nice instrumental tricks. A few of Chicago's most highly regarded musicians help out (Jim O'Rourke sings occasionally and helps produce, while Ken Vandermark and others pop up), but Come Pick Me Up too rarely gives them a strong template on which to build.