Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Superintendo is the latest band to debut on Punkerton Records, with their new album Beauty Routine. The three‑piece band describes themselves as genre curious, and that makes sense to me. The band doesn’t really experiment with a lot of genres — they just don’t fit nicely into any of them. Rock, punk, emo, ska, and indie are all apt descriptors at different times. Regardless of which genres are influencing a given song, the sound quality, production, and performance remain top tier.
The first song on the album is “Enthusiastica,” and it’s an excellent leading track. The song begins with a juicy bass riff that fades into a fast and aggressive punk/pop‑punk track. Drums and guitars join in pretty heavy, and the drums really seem to do a lot through the song. The verses come with lyrics that feel incredibly fast — “I’m in a manic state / A supersonic cyclical display.” You feel the manic state with the speed the lyrics come at you, but the drums drop down and cut the beat in half during the vocals and pick up immediately after each line. The slowed drums add to the effect, making the vocals feel more manic than they are, creating the tension that the song thrives on. The song is largely about mental health, but also embracing the fact and not wanting to be normal in such a fucked‑up world. “Don’t let them call you a problem like it’s a bad thing” really hits home. This song sets the stage, and it does everything just right.
The second track, “The Wolf,” feels like a 2010 emo‑punk track. It starts off and ends relatively slow, but picks up and is much faster through the middle two‑thirds of the song. The beginning of the song goes vocal heavy with rising action, something you can tell is building up to something. The end is more guitar‑centric with a simple rhythm, bringing the downward closure, tying the song together in a pretty bow as the line “Be still my shallow hollowed out heart” repeats with slightly different follow‑up lyrics. It is a solid close to a classic emo track.
“Swimming Pools” is probably the slowest track on the album and seductively plays with the guitar and vocals about a romance that feels stolen away. It feels like it’s about a fling that begs to be more, or the early stages in a relationship that starts off physical and curiously seeks to understand if there is something else.
Much of the album feels a lot closer to the first two tracks — emo, punk, rock, clever songwriting, excellent performances, great vocals. “California (I Guess)” is a little more pop‑punk and faster than most. The vocals aren’t quite as fast as they are delivered in “Enthusiastica,” but it’s more than made up for with the faster drums and bass. The backing vocals are great and add some fun texture in the song.
While every song is really good, and depending on your particular preferred mix of genres, each could be someone’s favorite track. A lot of times you’ll listen to an album and pretty easily tell which songs are the singles and maybe find a few songs that could be filler. Just about every song here might be someone’s favorite. For me, the choice is easy. I think “God Save the Billionaires” is head and shoulders above the rest. Whether it’s the subject matter or the execution, I can’t exactly say, but there is a good argument either way.
The slower syncopated beat is right up my alley. The rhythm is definitely ska‑influenced — but I’m always down for an anti‑capitalist, anti‑oligarch screed that plays tongue‑in‑cheek, and this really delivers. Lots of clever lyrics, a little jab about Epstein and his activities involving so many billionaires, and then at the end of the song, the ska riffs disappear, we get something a LOT faster, the euphemisms disappear, there is no more tongue‑in‑cheek, it gets direct and straightforward. “Because it’s a free market, you’re the commodity, and they’re trading on your security” hits so direct and matter‑of‑fact. While the song is largely playful and fun while throwing barbs, the end gets so direct, and the song is directed at you and me — informative. We are the target audience for the song — until the last line. The song ends with a statement with a target audience of the billionaires. It’s still for all of us, to take note and take action, but it’s a call and warning to those exploiting the rest of us more than a message for us — “sharpening the guillotine up.” It feels powerful given the shift in tone, and I fucking love it.
The rest of the album is similar to the first half in the scope of songwriting and performance. It’s a phenomenal album of 2020s punk, 2010s emo, and rock, with masterful execution. It is unsurprising that this is on Punkerton Records, as they continue to put out a great brand of new music with bands that hold up positive ethical views and considerable talent.
Take a listen to Superintendo’s Beauty Routine below.
Written by Gimp Leg
