...ah thank God.
After nearly a week recovering from the horrors of Kiss, when I saw that this was the next album on the list I almost wept tears of relief. While most people would place the also-great 'Zen Arcade' above it as Husker Du's (I apologise in advance, but I'll be damned if I'm going to waste my time finding the umlaut on my keyboard) best album, I believe that the band semi-jettisoning their hardcore roots for a slightly more poppy sound produced easily their most enjoyable listen, and paved the way for Bob Mould's future career making ever so slightly twisted hard pop records. In the 'against' column however, there's always that horrendous accusation that the band had a larger part than most in creating what we now know as 'emo', so to some that may colour their affection of the band in a 'unproven child abuse' kind of way.
00:18 Christ, you do forget quite how loud Husker Du could be, the title track sounds like jumbo jets having angry sex
01:14 Few people can scream as well as Bob Mould though, he's definitely up there with the Frank Blacks of this world
02:04 This is all marvellously unhinged, and fantastically exciting as a result
03:28 'The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill', and most of this album in fact, is pretty much as good as guitar music
gets. Anyone thinking of forming a band should by law at least have a passing knowledge of this album
06:39 'I Apologise is a pretty useful blueprint for Bob Mould's next band Sugar
12:14 Would Bob Mould be more famous now if he hadn't so stubbornly refused to change what is possibly the most unattractive name in rock? He sounds less like one of the most influential figures in 80s alternative music and more like the Lib Dem counsellor for Swaffham
14:01 This media player tells you what percentage of a way through a track you are, how marvellously unnecessary. I'm currently 51.65% through 'Celebrated Summer'
16:05 Husker Du had a fantastic talent of somehow making essentially collections of buzzsaw guitars and strangulated yelps sound as melodic and poppy as The Supremes
19:39 It always baffled me when people ponder why it was REM who made it big rather than Husker Du, surely in terms of radio-friendliness it's like wondering why the Pet Shop Boys became big over Einsturzende Neubauten
20:35 Ok, a bit of an overstatement, but you get my drift
22:06 'Husker Du, Du, Du, Captain Beefheart ELO...'
23:35 '59 Times the Pain' is probably as close you're gonna get to describing Husker Du's sound in three minutes and eighteen seconds
26:03 I mean, he may as well call himself Ted Damp...
26:49 I do think he has a really underrated voice though
29:46 I can imagine that there's people out there who really resent 'Books About UFOs', and it does sound likes it's been airlifted from a completely different album (even by a completely different band), but I honestly think it's one of the most joyously perfect little pop songs ever written, and to hold absolutely anything against it is a spiteful crime akin to farting on a kitten's lunch.
32:26 In fact, I think the album takes a bit of a nosedive into almost wanton unlistenability after it ('I Don't Know What You're Talking About' excepted), almost like the band were overcompensating ever so slightly
33:26 Mick Clammy...
33:49 Actually, 'Mick Clammy' sounds pretty cool, you can imagine him being the bass player in X-Ray Spex
36:35 Listening to it now, 'Whatcha Drinkin' is actually a pretty good punk song, it just sounds a little generic compared to most of the songs preceding it
41:44 A taped studio conversation states- oh the japes!- that 'it's the last song on the album, nobody cares what it sounds like' and we're done...
A classic of it's genre (whatever that means, it's a classic in any genre) and hasn't lost one iota of ferocity in the near quarter century since its release. I'd be surprised if there weren't at least one other Husker Du album on this list, and it would be entirely deserved
More of the same next, pretty much: Cyndi Lauper
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