Album Review: Super City Build A Sanctuary For “Resilient Pop”

When I reviewed Super City, I mentioned their “resilient pop” sound; managing to bring a sense of resistance to the usual bubblegum world of pop. Their album, Sanctuary, encapsulates their rock n’ roll approach to pop’s radio sensibilities. 

In life, everything is about approach. What I love about Super City is that they take the simple catchiness and sweetness of pop, and approach it with a blow torch of personality. They escalate and elevate levels of sugar with a fieriness that takes away all the “guilt” people feel at being pleased by pop. In this world, we can degrade what we like or make it seem silly. Yet, there is nothing silly or unserious about Sanctuary as an album. For Super City, it is not enough that the crowd dances, feels good, or feels hope. These are things/ luxuries you have to fight for, which is why there is an undercurrent of combativeness to their sound. 

“Roping,” “Don’t Scream,” “Vulture,” and “Ghost of Love” carry an emotional muddiness to their chords. It is as if Super City want to pull you from sentimental pits so that you can continue forward on this marathon call life. Frankly, you want to keep moving when you hear their exhilarating harmonies. Super City is Dan Ryan (lead vocals, guitar) Greg Wellham, (lead vocals guitar), Brian Brunsman (bass, vocals), Jon Birkholz (guitar, keys, vocals), and Ian Viera (drums & vocals). Together, their voices feel like the grunge cake version of Il Divo. They take the pristine and prim notions of male harmonies and add buckets of raucous color. Their sole organization is to benevolently rile; balancing melodies that zip like neon, laser beams that light the dance-floor but crush enemy fires of anxiety. 

I like when people surprise me. In a current music sphere that is focused on bending genres, Super City shows that a difference in personality can change the dynamic of a song. This feels like the most obvious truth that remains hidden because its makes too much sense. All you have to do is up the volume/ confidence in how you affirm something and the message can be transformed in resonance, which is exactly what Super City do in Sanctuary. Click Here To Buy.