The Drag is All Yours

ALBUM OF THE DAY
Superdrag - Regretfully Yours, released 1996 (Elektra)

In the glut of grungy power pop bands that flooded the mid-'90s, it was pretty easy to write off Superdrag as "just another rock band." The difference is that Superdrag is essentially a pop band, as Regretfully Yours proves. While the band's sound itself is nothing terribly exciting, most of the songwriting lives up to the promise of the album's saccharine-rush single, "Sucked Out" — full of hooks and tightly constructed. This is somewhat surprising, considering the album was the band's first for a major audience, and the norm of the time period was for producers and labels to reduce every rock band to a Seattle clone. Regretfully Yours will certainly satisfy the pop/rock and pop-punk crowds — Weezer and Bad Religion fans alike — but indie rock lovers should look to the band's early independent singles.

Album Reviews:
Entertainment Weekly (4/5/96, p.81) - "Superdrag combine noisy garage rock with mainstream pop, arriving in a place that owes equally to the Stooges and Matthew Sweet....Refreshing and irresistible." - Rating: A

Option (7-8/96, p.134) - "...these guys aren't goofing around--they take their teen spirit serious-like....dang if it don't get you feeling warm and tingly..."

Musician (7/96, p.95) - "...[has] volume and hooks aplenty, and on half these tracks they effortlessly blast forth the sound [Bob Mould] always aimed for but...missed..."

RIP (6/96, p.10) - 3 (out of 5) - "...It...grow[s] on you after a while, its impact as subtle as its sonic quirks and flourishes..."

On REGRETFULLY YOURS, its first full-length album, Superdrag refines pop to its very essence and then adds a few dreamy layers of guitars. The result is an album of quality pop songs that hark back to such forebears as the Beatles and the Jam while asserting a post-punk heritage; the melodious feedback atop these songs is a love note to Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine.

"Cynicality" is typical of Superdrag's melding of bubblegum pop with indie-rock experimentation. It begins with a thick layer of fuzzy guitars, but proceeds to a chorus driven by '60s-style handclaps. The key to Superdrag's music is the song beneath the noise. In direct contrast to a lot of similar-sounding bands, the song is the entree, the guitar effects merely garnishes. It's clear that underneath the guitar pedal pushing, this band has nothing to hide.