""I'm trying to care less," Mac McCaughan sings nearly halfway through Songs in the Key of Yikes, the 13th album from indie-rock institution Superchunk. It happens not long after he's led his bandmates through the careening "No Hope," an attempt to rally spirits even when "every crushing night leads to another endless day." Songs like these suggest that trying times are weighing heavily on the veteran rocker, a situation not without precedent in Superchunk's recent history."
"The aftershocks of those two seismic events reverberate throughout Songs in the Key of Yikes, in which Superchunk return to guitars-bass-drums basics after the expansive textures of Wild Loneliness. Things have changed in the past three years. Jon Wurster, the drummer who came aboard for On the Mouth way back in 1993, left, replaced by Laura King. Without Wurster's thunderous pulse, Superchunk conserve their energy, sticking to a mid-tempo chug across the album's middle section, and favoring the occasional sprint over bouts of exasperated catharsis."
Songs in the Key of Yikes finds Superchunk confronting contemporary anxieties with jagged indie-rock melodies and concise arrangements. Mac McCaughan's lyrics register weariness and guarded resilience, shifting between attempts to care less and rallying anthems like "No Hope." The record follows Majesty Shredding, What a Time to Be Alive and Wild Loneliness in tracing political discontent and pandemic angst. The band pares back expansive textures in favor of guitars-bass-drums immediacy, with Laura King replacing Jon Wurster on drums, prompting a steadier, mid-tempo pulse. Occasional bursts of speed deliver urgency and catharsis amid nagging anxiety and barbed melodies.
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