If Michigander’s “Superglue” feels instantly familiar, you’re not imagining it. It sounds like it could have come straight out of 1982, the year Modern English released “I Melt With You” and the Plimsouls released “A Million Miles Away.”
It didn’t copy either song, though. It borrowed their world.
“Superglue” is the opening track of Michigander’s EP It Will Never Be The Same, released March 31, 2023 on C3 Records. Michigander is the project of Michigan native Jason Singer, and the song was written by Singer, Jake LeMond, and Aaron Senor. There are no Modern English or Plimsouls writers credited, and no sample or interpolation is listed.
Singer has described “Superglue” as a song about second-guessing yourself — and about being okay with a little nervousness and skepticism. He also said it was made to be played live, for rooms full of people. That helps explain why it hits so hard: it’s not a bedroom indie song, it’s a singalong built for a crowd.
The Modern English connection: the shimmer
Modern English’s “I Melt With You” is built on a beautifully simple idea: mostly two chords, C to F, repeated over and over, with a clean, crystalline guitar, simple melodic synths, and a rhythm that pushes forward without ever getting aggressive.
“Superglue” lives in that same space. Its verses are glassy and open, its chorus gets thicker and bigger, and it leans heavily on C and F, with Am and Dm added for color. The synths sit underneath the guitars instead of taking over, just like they do in “I Melt With You.”
The difference is in the details. “I Melt With You” is essentially that C-F loop with a small guitar lick after each line. “Superglue” opens with a different pattern — C-Am-D-Am, then C-Am-Dm-Am — and its real hook isn’t a guitar lick at all. It’s Singer asking, “Should I give up on this thing that I’ve been chasing?”
Same sunlight-through-the-clouds feeling. Different song.
The Plimsouls connection: the engine
If Modern English gives “Superglue” its shimmer, the Plimsouls give it its engine.
“A Million Miles Away” is LA power pop at its best: an Em-D-Em intro riff, a driving verse, a climbing Am-Bm-C-Bm lift, and a chorus that lands with a big Em-F#m-G-D payoff. The guitar doesn’t just accompany the vocal — it answers it, repeats after lines, and drives the whole song forward.
“Superglue” doesn’t use that Em riff, that climbing lift, or the Plimsouls’ pentatonic solo shape. What it does share is the method: a guitar-forward backbeat, a short repeated figure that keeps the momentum going, an earnest vocal, and a chorus that’s meant to be shouted back by a room.
That’s why it can remind you of the Plimsouls even if you can’t point to a single matching note. It’s power pop logic, not power pop plagiarism.
What Singer actually said
When an interviewer asked Singer about the EP and said he heard “a lot of new wave-style guitar tones and layered tracks” on the first four songs, Singer didn’t name Modern English or the Plimsouls. He said this was the first EP where he was being self-referential, and that all his influences had finally melted together into something that just felt like his own sound.
The influences he has named over the years point in a different direction: Coldplay, The Killers, U2, Oasis, and The National, plus early loves like Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and The White Stripes. In other words, stadium-sized emotion and earnest songwriting, filtered through modern indie rock.
Reviewers heard the same thing. They compared “Superglue” and “Stay Out Of It” to Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs era — electric guitar plus liberal synths, familiar but fresh — and to mainstream early-to-mid-2010s indie rock, not to a direct 1982 remake.
The verdict: style, yes. Riff, no.
Michigander didn’t take a riff from Modern English or the Plimsouls. He took the style they helped invent:
- From Modern English: clean, jangly new wave guitar, synth sheen, and a simple chord loop that lets the melody breathe
- From the Plimsouls: driving power-pop guitar, a repeated figure, and a chorus built to lift a room
- From Michigander: a modern indie-rock update, with producer Tony Hoffer’s polish and a vocal hook that belongs entirely to “Superglue”
That’s why the song can feel like 1982 and 2023 at the same time. It isn’t a copy. It’s a descendant.
