Superchunk - Songs In The Key Of Yikes (2025) (FLAC)

Superchunk are back with Songs in the Key of Yikes, a record that wrestles with anxiety and dread through hooks, volume and vulnerability. It's a characteristically sharp and wired set from the veteran indie-punk crew, who sound more fired up than ever in a world that's only grown heavier since 2022's Wild Loneliness.

McCaughan spends much of Songs in the Key of Yikes climbing the walls, yelping about bruised lungs, collapsing dancefloors, and trains on fire—apocalyptic imagery that mirrors the nightmarish news. He ends the album, on “Some Green,” wondering if he “could be of use/Doing something less obtuse/Than turning all my rotten thoughts into perfume”; it's a defeated counterpoint to the album's opening rallying cry, “Is It Making You Feel Something,” which offers emotion as the best defense in an era when “fakes are faking everything that once made your poor heart sing.”

The album welcomes drummer Laura King as a full-time member, and features guests including Rosali (on ‘Bruised Lung' and ‘Everybody Dies'), Quivers members Bella Quinlan and Holly Thomas (‘Cue'), and Betsy Wright of Ex Hex and Bat Fangs (‘Care Less'). Engineered by Paul Voran and Eli Webb, and mixed by Mike Montgomery, Songs in the Key of Yikes is vintage Superchunk: loud, defiant, and searching for hope amid the wreckage.

Tracklist
01. Is It Making You Feel Something (3:50)
02. Bruised Lung (4:24)
03. No Hope (3:54)
04. Care Less (3:17)
05. Climb the Walls (3:51)
06. Cue (4:27)
07. Everybody Dies (3:04)
08. Stuck in a Dream (3:21)
09. Train on Fire (3:49)
10. Some Green (4:25)