Superheaven haven’t made music in 10 years, however they’ve been gaining status sooner lately than they ever did after they have been collectively. Out of nowhere, in 2023, they hit it large on TikTok with ‘Youngest Daughter’, a monitor from their 2013 debut ‘Jar’, which has been streamed on Spotify 145million instances. For followers of the band, this has labored out properly, culminating in a sold-out ‘Jar’ anniversary tour in 2023 and, now, a brand-new album.
That album could be titled merely ‘Superheaven’, however from its opening riff on the monitor ‘People For Toys’, it’s clear that it is a barely completely different Superheaven. For one factor, they’ve by no means sounded so metallic. As on different tracks throughout the album like ‘Merciless Instances’ and ‘Lengthy Gone’, this riff is heavy, bordering on sludgey. The manufacturing, too, is heavier-handed, with tones smoothed and made big to drive house these large riffs.
The facility of Superheaven’s earlier data got here from the immediacy and tactility that nodded to the band’s punk roots. On ‘Superheaven’, it comes from this enormity. Whereas the brand new model sacrifices some hearth, it creates a way of maturity: heightened stakes, and the accrued knowledge to deal with them.
As if to exhibit that proper off the bat, opener ‘People For Toys’ is probably essentially the most nakedly political monitor they’ve ever put out. “Youngsters burned alive / Cash’s every part,” vocalist Taylor Madison sings, in a rebuke of struggle that’s arduous to not learn as an commentary of assaults on Gaza. On the opposite aspect of the coin, ‘Merciless Instances’ is a love tune about long-term devotion that would nearly be described as feel-good – positively a rarity within the band’s normally darkish catalogue.
That stated, the extraordinary and doomy catharsis that the band have so far traded in remains to be ever-present on ‘Superheaven’. Hopelessness and isolation are the overwhelming themes of the report. Closing monitor ‘The Curtain’ is crushing as Madison sings, “I really feel like half a human being,” whereas ‘Lengthy Gone’ is nearly non secular in its despair. That catharsis seems like an necessary throughline to the band’s id.
There are lyrical glimpses all through the album to the stakes of their reunion. When Madison sings, “We have been by no means meant to return again,” on ‘Merciless Instances’, he seemingly refers to overcoming the percentages in his relationship, however it’s simple to think about the double which means that may come up when the band play it reside. Likewise, on ‘Sounds of Goodbyes’, a tune explicitly about Superheaven’s hiatus and reunion, co-frontman Jake Clarke sings: “It’s a spark of a brand new life.” This new life is completely different from the previous one, however it’s acquired loads to supply Superheaven followers.
Particulars
- File label: Blue Grape Music
- Launch date: April 18, 2025
