B-Side Worship: Superchunk - "Home at Dawn"

Superchunk – “Home at Dawn”
Snap! Crackle! Punk!, 1994

Superchunk have a lot of fucking fantastic fist-pumping anthems. They’re the flagship jams that people think of when they think of Superchunk. “Slack Motherfucker.” “Precision Auto.” “Hyper Enough.” “Detroit Has a Skyline.” These are all songs that are very near and dear to me, but my favorite Superchunk song is one of their least fist-pumpy songs, “Home at Dawn.” It’s special for a few reasons, a big one being I’d never heard it until I randomly found it on vinyl at Love Garden, took it home, threw it on the turntable, and proceeded to listen to it twenty times. I couldn’t get enough. I still can’t get enough. It’s one of those songs I’ll listen to on repeat. The way that guitar line reels with the character in the story Mac is telling us. The embarrassment of walking home after spending most of the night with someone. Probably hungover. Definitely hungover. It’s so beautifully realized, it puts you right there. On that sidewalk, stumbling over the bricks as the sun starts to creep over the horizon. No traffic on a usually busy street. Everything simultaneously new and ending, locked in a loop. I’ve already covered this song on this blog already, but I love it so much I’m covering it again.