An estimated 98% of us experience earworms. Despite the annoying times that we can’t get a chorus or a hook of an overplayed pop song out of our heads, getting a really good earworm stuck can be one of the best things ever.
We here at Nerdist are dead-set on bringing you those types of songs, if only for the weekend. We’ll be scouring the internet for the best earworms we can shove into your meaty brains!
I admit I got a bit stuck on this week’s earworms. I usually start with one from a suggestion and build on that in either theme, genre, or my best attempt at some sort of stream of consciousness/free association of where that seed song leads me. It’s never anything too enlightened, but I can pretty much get from A to B to C and then sneak in a Ska song somewhere. This week, despite an amazing seed song, I just couldn’t move on from the same artist. In fact, I couldn’t move away from the same album.
Superdrag – Sucked Out
Enter ’90s alt-rock band from Knoxville, Tennessee, Superdrag. They were actually one of the first concerts I remember consciously WANTING to go to when I was younger and my older brother kindly obliged. Superdrag took 1996 by storm with a fine specimen of ’90s rock with their hit “Sucked Out”. Most earworms – and pop hits in general – have a memorable chorus and boy did this one have it. Raspy angst of the mid-’90s while still being clean for airplay meant that this song was everywhere. It reached its highest point at #17 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks that year which always struck me as odd because the song, and for that matter the entire album, still holds up today. [Editor’s Note: I’ve never heard this song before.] Superdrag’s 1996 album Regretfully Yours is still a go-to album for me almost 20 years after it came out. Here, listen to this while I cry a bit about how old I just realized I am after typing that sentence.
Slot Machine
The first track on the album is the perfect opener for an album that came out in the mid-nineties. High energy, a driving and repetitive drum beat through the chorus and because it was the ’90s, vocals with a slight whine to them (I mean that in the best way possible). What makes this distinctly an album of the 1990s is seamless transitions between songs. Not to say that sort of thing hadn’t been done before, it’s just that in that decade, fade outs and lead-ins were somehow all the rage again and Superdrag came out strong with this one leading into the second song on the album “Phaser“.
Destination Ursa Major
I’m often stumped why this album didn’t do better and why the band never really had another huge hit. While we may never be able to glean a real answer of why one song or band does better than another, I think the band had too much to contend with that year. 1996 also brought the world singles from Oasis, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, Alanis Morrisette, The Eels, Pearl Jam, Butthole Surfers, Bush, and 311. All INCREDIBLY memorable and in a lot of ways still relevant and/or still touring. Oh man, I realize now I should probably just do this article year by year.
N.A. Kicker
This song might be the reason I can’t let this album out of my head. N.A. Kicker should have been another hit. Lyrically it hits everything a pop song should. This chorus with it’s lyrical cadence is PERFECT pop song material
“I’m sure you’ve heard this one a million times before You’re the one I wanna adore and I can’t shut it up anymore I just hope it’s not becoming a bore ‘cuz I can’t daydream anymore”
The band is commonly remembered as a one-hit wonder and they really don’t deserve that moniker. Superdrag continued to put out albums and EPs well into the late 2000s until they finally disbanded in 2010. Some collections of demos have been released since and it’s all still very listenable but for me, Regretfully Yours is a perfect album of the 1990s and deserves at least a few listen-throughs from anyone who humors me by reading this article, even if it’s just the editors (you hear me, Kyle?) [Editor’s Note: I hear you, Blake. I’ve still never heard of this band until now.]
Having fawned over this album for the last 19 years, I’m ready to release its curse of catchy-ness onto the masses like an audio version of The Ring. I see no better way than to finish this article out with the last track off Regretfully Yours…
Rocket
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What are your go-to ’90s albums that most might not remember? Let us know in the comments or feel free to tweet them to me at @TheBlakeRodgers.
