Superchunk Song Review Project 9: "Breadman"

When I first heard this song I was convinced it was "the best Superchunk song." After 18 years I no longer think this is the case, but I can tell you exactly why it hit me so powerfully then: the total pop-punk harmonization in the chorus. ``YOU ARE THE BREAAAADDDMAAANNNN!" Who knows/cares what the hell that means, but it sounds great! The warbly high pitched off key harmonies are just so perfect, it kills me still.

The song over all is a pretty good example of them putting the sort of grungy/hard corey type stuff they were doing behind them and going in the pop direction which ultimately wound up defining them. The whole thing is super catchy. The verse is basically just two chords with the guitars coming in and out over top...of course when they're "out" they're feeding back! I think there's an acoustic guitar in the mix there too, another trick they used later on on a bunch of recordings. A cool thing in this song is that I don't think the (electric) guitars ever play chords during the verse and chorus, but instead play some punchy/noodly riffs over top of everything.

After the second chorus they just stop and the tempo sort of changes while one guitar plays a riff, then a drum roll, some more instruments come in, PICK SLIDES (seriously, every Superchunk song in this era had pick slides!!!) and then after like five seconds of this we've got a classic ANTHEMIC SUPERCHUNK BRIDGE situation on our hands. Some incomprehensible but melodic stuff is getting belted out and its power chord city. I have no idea what the lyrics but I bet I'd feel uplifted if I knew!!! After that its back to the verse and another chorus. Really classic Superchunk song structure up to this point...and the coup de grace: the two chord outro. DUG DUG...DUUUUUU, DUG DUG...DUUUUUU and so on. Why is this there?!?!?! It gets faded out super fast! But its so cool! I think they just wanted some grindy grunge to keep things real.

Song structure: ABABCABx2D

PS The verse is two chords, the chorus is a descending riff and the bridge is an ascending riff, and so basically each switch changes up the "feel" of the song quite a bit, particularly at the chorus. The rising power chords (as opposed to the noodly stuff) are why it feels so dang triumphant.

PPS At 0:53 Chuck the drummer misses a beat, I think. I love songs with errors.