Subject: review from jan 96 Alternative Press

SUPERCHUNK
Here's Where the Strings Come In

    Not much different here from the previous Superchunk records, 
except: More clarity of production, a brighter sound, a wider ranging 
sonic attack; and stronger, self-confident performances, a defiantly 
tremulous cheerfulness.
    If it hasn't been apparent until now, Mac McCaughan is the Robert 
Smith for the pogo set, an eternally sob-happy romantic who lets his 
big heart wail waveringly out in the open air.  Sometimes of course, 
it's wailing snide or whining scorn, but it's always endearing.  the 
best Superchunk songs are rollicking celebrations of optimism in the 
face of fear, rejection, mortality, indigestion... The feeling is 
explosive beyond the ability to cope.
    On 'Here's Where The Strings Come In' - their fifth full album of 
new material - songs like "Iron On" and "Detroit Has A Skyline" bounce 
and bang with garage abandon and pure pop tunefulness.  The band's punk 
drive is generic, though inspired by the best.  (The "London Calling" 
opening of "Hyper Enough" and its Buzzcockian guitar figure, for 
instance.)  A more amusing description might be trying to imagine 
Superchunk as an unholy combination of the bluesy, urgent yearnings of 
the Replacements and the hyperelasticity of the Toy Dolls.
    And, never fear, Superchunk remain totally divorced from the 
gentler strains of McCaughan's Portastatic solo project.
    Where do the string's come in? On "Sunshine State," a grandiose 
ballad that goes for the quietly heroic.  The title track is a bit of a 
joke as it regards the use of strings, but it's equally fervent.  
(Merge,POB1235, Chapel Hill, NC 27514)
- Stephen M. H. Braitman