Supers

Both the first and second efforts by Toronto band the Supers were surprisingly good little records for different reasons. Their debut, Spklanng!, was a great collection of power pop while the follow-up, Mystery On Pop Mountain, was an unexpected foray into country music. So expectations were high for their first album in four years and unfortunately they don’t deliver. They’ve returned to their pop roots for Re:Arrange, but it lacks the urgency of their similarly-minded debut and suffers as a result. It might just be that this is their dreaded mature album, or it might be that they’ve made the decision to smooth off those rougher edges but whatever the reason it makes Re:Arrange a lot less compelling than either of its predecessors. It starts off decently enough with a handful of catchy songs that wouldn’t sound out of place on any of Matthew Sweet’s lesser albums, but then it settles down into an less-than-ambitious groove that just isn’t very inspiring. Not a terrible album by any means, but it will come as a disappointment to anyone who has crossed paths with the Supers before.