The fifth studio album from these four gender misfits from Atlanta had a difficult birth.
It was conceived with the heavy shadow of doubt and worry over the health of Doris Muramatsu who was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Feelings of being powerless can be heard in Nate Barafsky's songs Nothing Left and No Matter What I Do although they are balanced by a determination to overcome the difficulties , "just let go and start again" he sings on the former.
This sentiment is echoed by "let's just start all over" sentiment in Tylan Greenstein's song Empire Of Our State which features a guest appearance from the Indigo Girls' Emily Saliers.
None of the songs make a direct reference to cancer and the title track was even written before the seriousness of Muramatsu's condition was known.
She says , however, that the words about a dying star in "a universe sad and bereft" seemed to capture the fear and isolation she was forced to confront. She was comforted by the reflection that "A Supernova may be a dying star but it also gives birth to new stars".
Her own song Saint Augustine addresses the subject more directly, written as a kind of prayer to be cured and referring to "something unseen, something inside me".
The three part harmonies and the fact that the tunes are rooted in the conventions of commercial pop mean that the album retains a bright, breezy quality even when the singer bemoans that she has "no-one to turn to and say goodnight" (See To See).
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Also the record doesn't forgo a fair smattering of sentimentalism, notably on Michelangelo, a song about a misunderstood poet-genius.
The influence of Paul Simon remains strong too; for example, the melody for The Person You Want sounds like a slowed down version of Simon & Garfunkel's Cecilia.
The title of their previous album, Everything's Easy, reflected the band's happy go lucky mood, and while Supernova is understandably less carefree it is still an upbeat and cheerful record.
The overall optimism and resilient spirit appears to have been rewarded too since the latest diagnosis for Muramatsu and the group is positive. The blood transfusions and chemotherapy treatment she underwent have been successful and the cancer went into remission.
If you were so inclined, you could put this down to the healing power of good old-fashioned pop music.
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