Superchunk: Mac McCaughan (vocals, guitar); Jim Wilbur (guitar); Laura Ballance (bass); Jon Wurster (drums).After two classic albums, Superchunk found itself "divorced" from the semi-major record label Matador and back on Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance's label, Merge. With this retrenchment also came an end to the long-time romantic relationship of McCaughan and Ballance. Astoundingly, not only did Superchunk the band survive the dissolution of its founders' relationship, but managed to produce a brilliant album in response. Not since the divorce of John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, (which resulted in the painfully transcendent AIN'T LOVE GRAND), or the separation of Richard and Linda Thompson has this much pain been transformed into musical catharsis.Superchunk's obscure, sometimes hidden lyrics have always prompted speculation into their meaning and FOOLISH seems loaded with allusions to the couple's romantic demise. When McCaughan sings "And you trusted me/like a fool" (in the achingly beautiful "Like a Fool"), it is hard to associate the singer with anyone other than his ex-muse. It was perhaps no coincidence that FOOLISH is stylistically leaps and bounds above any of the bands previous work in both conception and form. "Driveway to Driveway" is the uber-Superchunk song, and combines the band's prettiest melody with restrained bursts of guitar and McCaughan's most emotional singing to date.
