Album: Wild Loneliness
Year: 2022
. . .
The last song on the most recent Superchunk album kinda really sums things up in a lot of ways. Fading in with a picked acoustic guitar circling around some controlled feedback, it seems like it’s going to be a quiet slow reflective one.
Are you lookin’ out
Or back at where you been?
No need to be convincing now
Or to let the right one in
School supplies for a cloudy sunrise
You can let the edges peel
Put your foot into the wheel
When they call your name
Oh, it’s a sideways game
Psych! As they start going to the chorus, Jon Wurster and Laura Ballance start a build, Mac McCaughan and Jim Wilbur dump the acoustics for the electric, and guest vocalist Sharon Van Etten provides some exquisite harmonies.
And if you’re not dark
At least in some little part
What are you on
And can I have some?
Oh, if you’re not dark
I don’t believe it
I mean, that just about sums everything up, doesn’t it? Who’s really and fully OK right now? Liar. After the first chorus, there’s a nice long guitar solo, because damn straight there is, and a second verse, but it’s really all about that chorus, which they extend and emphasize for the rest of the song.
If you’re not dark
At least in some little part
What are you on
And can we get some?
Woah, if you’re not dark
In some pocket of your heart
Where are you from?
Are you just numb?
Woah, if you’re not dark
At least in some little part
What are you on?
Oh, I don’t want none
If you’re not dark
Ooh-ooh-ooh
If you’re not dark
Ooh-ooh-ooh
“If You’re Not Dark” is gorgeous and melancholy and wise and uplifting all at the same time, and if it’s the final song on the final Superchunk album, it would be fitting as hell.
And I guess that there’s a chance of that happening, as just before I started writing the Superchunk posts, drummer Jon Wurster announced that — after 31 years — he had “decided to fade back from my role as Director of Percussive Research at Superchunk Industries,” saying that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. And while Wurster was the new kid on the block — not showing up until their third album, On The Mouth — his fantastic drumming was a key reason behind the high quality of their output, both in the 1990s and in 2010s.
So far as I can tell, it was coordinated enough that the band had a replacement drummer for their current tour, and so we will see what happens next!
“If You’re Not Dark”
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