“One foot on wet leaves, one foot on concrete, your hand in my sleeve – oh” runs the repeating, wistful mantra of Mac Mccaughan‘s new song ‘Wet Leaves’. Riding a post-punk bassline and sweetly simplistic drum machine that draws us away from Mac’s consistently outstanding work with main love Superchunk and reminds us of his more understated work as Portastatic, this is a beautifully nuanced portion of pre-new wave ethereal pop.
The impressionistic video from Trudy Benson is equally evocative, also relying on repetition and slight variation for its’ impact. A guest vocal from Annie Hayden (ex-Spent) rounds out this atmospheric package that genuinely feels like a trip back to early teenhood – all crystallized imagery and awkward but ever-echoing interpersonal exchanges.
The song is a thing of beauty, though not even close to being the best thing on McCaughan’s outstanding new album ‘Non-Believers’ which was just released this week – the very first release under McCaughan’s own name.
