Wild Loneliness

Wild Loneliness was recorded at home in North Carolina during lockdown and mixed by Wally Gagel (Here’s Where the Strings Come In). The striking visual on the front cover arrives from a piece titled Playhouse Goat by acclaimed photographer Farah Al Qisimi. In addition to McGinley and Blake, the album features guest spots from Sharon Van Etten, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Wye Oak’s Andy Stack, Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, Owen Pallett, Kelly Pratt, and Franklin Bruno. We gave an advance listen of the new album to poet and Superchunk fan Maggie Smith; here’s what she wrote:

Like every record Superchunk has made over the last thirty-some years, Wild Loneliness is unskippably excellent and infectious. It’s a blend of stripped-down and lush, electric and acoustic, highs and lows, and I love it all. On Wild Loneliness I hear echoes of Come Pick Me Up, Here’s to Shutting Up, and Majesty Shredding. After the (ahem, completely justifiable) anger of What a Time to Be Alive, this new record is less about what we’ve lost in these harrowing times and more about what we have to be thankful for.