''Foolish'' is the fourth studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Superchunk Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Laura King. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that hel ...

. It was recorded from November 30 through December 2, 1993, at Pachyderm Studios, by

Brian Paulson Brian Paulson is an American record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Superchunk and Wilco. Paulson grew up in Bemidji, Minnesota, but moved about 200 miles south to ...

and mixed by the band and Paulson at

Steve Albini Steven Frank Albini (; July 22, 1962 – May 7, 2024) was an American musician and audio engineer. He founded and fronted the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (band), ...

's home studio. The album was released by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expand ...

in 1994. The cover art is credited to the band's bassist,

Laura Ballance Laura Jane Ballance (born February 22, 1968) is the bassist in the rock band Superchunk (also contributing occasional backing vocals) and co-founder of Merge Records along with Mac McCaughan. In 2013 she announced that she would no longer be touri ...

. Ballance has stated that although the painting has generated much speculation into its deeper meaning, it was simply an "unpracticed" attempt to hark back to an

American Music Club American Music Club was an American, San Francisco-based indie rock band, led by singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel. Formed in 1982, the band released seven albums before splitting up in 1995. They reformed in 2003 and released two further albums. ...

album cover. She was the only model available to her, and the dead rabbit was added after she had watched the

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

film ''Pets or Meat''. ''Foolish'' was completed shortly after Ballance and the band's guitarist and lead singer,

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the ind ...

, had broken up. While Ballance rates the album as her third favorite in the band's catalog, she stated that "....touring for ''Foolish'' was so hard. Listening to those words every night and feeling so mute. I didn't get to say anything, and here he was saying everything. I would be up there jumping up and down with tears streaming down my face. This is the second consecutive Superchunk album where the band recorded a song of the same name, but didn't put it on the album. The US vinyl edition of the album included "Foolish" on a bonus 7" single. The song eventually appeared on the band's ''Incidental Music'' compilation. The video for "Driveway to Driveway" is a takeoff on the classic film '' The Philadelphia Story''. In the video, drummer Jon Wurster plays a rich buffoon and singer Mac McCaughan plays a scrappy lower-class guy both competing for the affection of Ballance's character. Guitarist Jim Wilbur plays a butler. The four members also portray musicians.

Track listing

# "Like a Fool" – 4:42 # "The First Part" – 4:47 # "Water Wings" – 4:03 # "Driveway to Driveway" – 4:41 # "Saving my Ticket" – 3:25 # "Kicked In" – 4:22 # "Why Do You Have to Put a Date on Everything" – 4:33 # "Without Blinking" – 3:10 # "Keeping Track" – 4:42 # "Revelations" – 3:38 # "Stretched Out" – 4:13 # "In a Stage Whisper" – 3:59

References

1994 albums Superchunk albums Merge Records albums {{1990s-indie-rock-album-stub