It wouldn’t be quite right to say that Superchunk frontman and Merge Records co-founder Mac McCaughan has never released a solo album. After all, his Portastatic side project has six albums to its credit, and all of them are basically solo albums. Still, McCaughan’s new LP Non-Believers, is the first he’s ever released under his own name, so that’s something. More to the point, it’s a really good album, a tunefully homespun affair that draws on McCaughan’s punk rock youth and on the idea that punk can be a deeply personal thing. It makes great use of McCaughan’s urgent yelp, which always seems to carry huge stakes. We’ve already heard “Lost Again,” “Wet Leaves,” and the 7″ version of “Box Batteries,” and now you can stream the whole thing at NPR. You should do that.

Non-Believers is out 5/5 on Merge.