5 out of 5

Label: Elektra

Produced by: Jerry Finn

The person who turned me on to Superdrag sort of led me to believe that Head Trip was a “lesser than” album.  This gave me a complex which assumed that “real” ‘drag fans certainly felt the same.  When I eventually picked up the album, I was ashamed at how good I found it to be.  Listen to those smooth, lush songs; revel in the deep, Jerry Finn production.  Was I a corporate patsy, suckered into loving a surface-level singles disc, when I should be playing Regretfully Yours on repeat instead?

I don’t actually know if Superdrag followers are down on Head Trip for being a particularly studio album.  If they are, it would be ironic, given how the band clashed with the label over a lack of radio-accessible material (thereby proving the questionable judgement of label people, since these are all ear-grabbing potential hits), and did a sort of punk rock trash-the-hotel thing by taking their paycheck and going whole-hog with the album’s orchestration, but again, I’m probably making this whole judgment thing up, because I don’t understand how anyone would consider this to not be a great album.

Regretfully undoubtedly had a scrappy, ground floor charm to it, and In the Valley of Dying Stars is a bleak and raw masterpiece.  But Headtrip in Every Key is what its title suggests: an all-encompassing jolt; joy and sadness and all the stuff in between Jerry Finned up to 11.  John Davis’ occasionally syrupy lyrics are reigned in to something a bit more sharp, his floaty vocals mixed perfectly to juxtapose the crunch of the guitars, and every single song has a clear and sparkling and infectious hook.  Reviewing highlights seems like a fool’s errand, as I’m legitimately sucked in to the experience from first song to last.  A more nuanced ear may have something to say about that: I’ve found all other Superdrag albums to have a minor learning curve in terms of getting used to ebbs and flows, while Headtrip, for me, just organically drifts from song to song: From I’m Expanding My Mind to Bankrupt Vibration to The Art of Dying.

Next month, join me for when I say super similar things about every other Superdrag album except minus the over-bearing justification!