Sugar – The National Stadium – Live Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Bob Mould – Here We Go Crazy – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Bob Mould – Whelans – Live Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Bob Mould – Blue Hearts – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2020/09/29/bob-mould-blue-hearts-album-review/

Bob Mould – Sunshine Rock – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/02/08/bob-mould-sunshine-rock-album-review/

A Look Ahead To 2019 In Music

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/01/01/a-look-ahead-to-2019-in-music/

Best Albums of 2016 – Killian Laher

Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2016/12/16/best-albums-of-2016-killian-laher/

Bob Mould - The Last Dog and Pony Show

Bob Mould's fourth solo album, released in 1998, was supposed to be his farewell to guitar rock, though we now know that didn't turn out to be the case.  It didn't augur well that the opening track was entitled New #1.  However the track is a sort of driving guitar rock anthem, nothing amazing, but not terrible.  A bit like most of the album.  And there lies the problem.  Very few of the tracks are particularly distinctive, Moving Trucks, Taking Everything and First Drag of the Day are just... fine but aren't especially memorable.  The stomping riffs of Skintrade are a distinct improvement on a rocker which wouldn't disgrace his stronger albums.

There are three standouts towards the end of the album, though one is for the wrong reasons.  Megamanic opens with a robotic voice chanting "mega mega, mega mega" and foreshadows Mould's move into dance music.  On the other hand, previous track Sweet Serene rocks harder than anything else here, with big riffs outdoing the likes of the Foo Fighters but not Mould himself.  Final track Along the Way sees Mould sounding more emotional than anything else here and works well for that reason.  But overall, not the Bob Mould album to lend to your friends.  Or indeed pester them about on your favourite streaming service.

Bob Mould – Patch The Sky – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2016/03/29/bob-mould-patch-the-sky-album-review/

Killian Laher – Top 10 Albums of 2014

Article for No More Workhorse:

http://nomoreworkhorse.com/2015/01/02/killian-laher-top-10-albums-of-2014/

Top 10 Albums of 2014

Ok I'm just going to put this up now and be done with it.  No, Mark Kozelek doesn't feature:

10. Caught In The Wake Forever - My Family Goes On Without Me

More exquisite melancholy from Scotland.

http://www.meg.ie/caught-in-the-wake-forever-my-family-goes-on-without-me/

9. Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Lengthy, bombastic instrumental rock.

http://www.meg.ie/earth-primitive-and-deadly/

8. New Secret Weapon - New Secret Weapon

Exciting new Irish band.

http://www.meg.ie/new-secret-weapon-new-secret-weapon/

7. Mark Lanegan Band - Phantom Radio

Lanegan keeps pushing the boundaries of his sound.

http://www.meg.ie/album-review-mark-lanegan-band-phantom-radio/

6. Morrissey - World Peace Is None Of Your Business

Old misery guts finally decides to mix things up... a bit.

http://www.meg.ie/morrissey-world-peace-is-none-of-your-business/

5. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams

Almost too smooth at times, yet it really works at others.

http://www.meg.ie/album-review-ryan-adams/

4. Dakota Suite and Quentin Sirjacq - There Is Calm To Be Done

Chris Hooson and co continue to turn out flawless albums.

http://www.meg.ie/dakota-suite-quentin-sirjacq-there-is-calm-to-be-done/

3. Mogwai - Rave Tapes

One of the most consistent bands around.

http://www.meg.ie/mogwai-rave-tapes/

2. Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin

An unexpected late career highlight, the fire still burns.

http://spillmagazine.com/album-review-bob-mould-beauty-ruin/

1. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Atomos

I never thought my album of the year would be a droney, instrumental ballet soundtrack.

http://www.meg.ie/album-review-a-winged-victory-for-the-sullen-atomos/

Album Review: Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin

Review for www.spillmagazine.com

http://spillmagazine.com/album-review-bob-mould-beauty-ruin/

Most-read articles in 2013

Here are the 10 most-read articles on Sacred Cowpats in 2013:

10 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

 

Kicking Against the Pricks - http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/06/album-review-nick-cave-and-bad-seeds.html

 

Henry's Dream - http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/10/album-review-nick-cave-bad-seeds-henrys.html

 

Thanks to those who stuck with this as I have hobbled through Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' back catalogue.  A joint entry at number 10 for covers album Kicking Against the Pricks and for 1992's Henry's Dream.

 

9 J Mascis + The Fog - More Light:

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/01/album-review-j-mascis-fog-more-light.html

 

Mascis goes solo on this 2000 effort.

 

8 Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle - Perils From The Sea:

 

http://www.meg.ie/mark-kozelek-jimmy-lavalle-perils-from-the-sea/

 

Kozelek's most unusual release of his career to date, and undoubtedly a triumph.

 

7 Bob Mould - Body of Song:

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/07/album-review-bob-mould-body-of-song.html

 

Late period Mould from 2005.

 

6 Top albums of 2013:

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/12/top-10-albums-of-2013.html

 

You liked this.  Or it so it seems.

 

5 The Mission - The Brightest Light:

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/08/album-review-mission-brightest-light.html

 

Hussey and co miraculously still around.

 

4 The Savings and Loan - Today I Need Light:

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/08/album-review-savings-and-loan-today-i.html

 

Scottish band, not too many of those on this blog usually...

 

3 Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly of A Mountain

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/01/album-review-sparklehorse-dreamt-for.html

 

Final album from Linkous.

 

2 Small Town Boredom - Notes From The Infirmary

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/01/album-review-small-town-boredom-notes.html

 

And another (defunct) Scottish band.

 

1 Mark Eitzel - Glory

 

http://sacredcowpats.blogspot.ie/2013/03/album-review-mark-eitzel-glory.html

 

Fans only release and I take it everyone who bought it read this!

Album Review: Bob Mould - District Line

Bob Mould's 2008 album District Line is a curious one.  No more so than on opener Stupid Now, which can't decide between being a dance song, or to rock, and ultimately does neither.  Mould at times sounds like he can barely sing on this, and also the Britpop strum of Again and Again, his voice cracking under the strain of reaching the notes, and its not clear whether this is deliberate or not.  Better are the Sugar-y rockers Who Needs To Dream? and Return to Dust.

 

Old Highs, New Lows is another dodgy dance/rock hybrid, while Shelter Me goes the whole 'dad-dance' hog.  He saves the best for last with the reflective, REM channeling strum of Walls In Time, accompanied by Amy Domingues' fine cello part.  This track was apparently written around the time of 1989's Workbook.  It's a shame there aren't more like it here as it suits him down to the ground and is the strongest track on an uneven album.

Album Review: Bob Mould – Body of Song

After the rather strange dance experiment of 2002’s Modulate, 2005's Body of Song was billed as Bob Mould’s ‘return to rock’.  It opens with the reasonably heavy Circles which has a decent tune, but (Shine Your) Light Love Hope and I Am Vision, I Am Sound hark back to Modulate with their dance beats and vocodered, auto-tuned to death vocals.  Really quite jarring.

Thankfully the rest of the album improves on this.  Underneath Days has a strong guitar riff and real passion in the vocals along with impassioned rockers like Paralyzed and Best Thing.  Elsewhere, Days of Rain introduces an ‘adult-oriented’, relaxed, mid-paced sound which really suits Mould, and it’s replicated on High Fidelity and Missing You.  It’s the type of thing Paul Westerberg manages quite well.

Penultimate track Gauze of Friendship is the most emotional track, all busted relationships and sepia-described memories, with a fine guitar solo thrown in for good measure.  The album concludes on a very strong note with the parched, downbeat rocker Beating Heart The Prize, possibly the most anthemic track here and yet another blinding guitar solo.

It’s not the most cohesive album Bob Mould has put his name to but, dance-pop experiments aside, is a good collection of songs.

Album Review: Bob Mould

 

Bob Mould's first album post-Sugar in 1996 starts with the slowly building Anymore Time Between, which starts as a fairly static, brooding affair but it casts off its shackles, turning into a rousing number. Structurally it's atypical of him, and it suits him quite well.

After this departure, most of the rest of the material follows a well-worn path. Tracks like I Hate Alternative Rock, Deep Karma Canyon and Art Crisis are fairly bog-standard Mould rockers. Better are the more anthemic tracks such as Fort Knox, King Solomon and the closing track Roll Over And Die. He also turns his hand to more introspective, bitter numbers like the vicious Next Time That You Leave ("I'm burning everything you own"), and Thumbtack, where Mould sounds worn out.

As the above song titles indicate, Bob Mould was not in a good place at this point in his career. This album has an almost nihilistic feel to it and probably not a great starting point to investigate this guy's work.





Album Review: Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening

Album number three for Bob Mould's Sugar came out in 1994. It's a heavy guitar rush, especially the almost MBV-isms of opening track Gift, but underneath there are some very relaxed, almost poppy melodies. Tracks like Your Favourite Thing and the Replacements-ish Believe What You're Saying are as poppy as anything in the indie-pop canon.

Bassist David Barbe gets to do vocals on the hard-rocking Company Book, and there are plenty of rock anthems here like the almost Heroes-like What You Want It To Be. Panama City Motel borrows some of the chords from Beaster's Come Around, while the acoustic guitars of Can't Help You Anymore echo Copper Blue.

The album finishes with a Neil Young style guitar feast in Explode and Make Up. Oft-overlooked in favour of Copper Blue, this album deserves a listen in its own right.

Album Review: Sugar – Beaster

Aptly named, 1994’s Beaster is a heavier, gnarly collection than the previous year’s Copper Blue.  It opens with the seemingly throwaway Come Around, the only lyrics feature Bob Mould singing over and over “come around, won’t you come around”.  However a combination of his acoustic and electric guitars drag the track to dizzy heights.

 

The following track Tilted blasts off into orbit as an abrasive Mould-rocker.  He’s very much in Black Sheets of Rain mode (mould) on the bleak-sounding Judas Cradle.  His crazed vocal is all over JC Auto as he bawls “look like Jesus Christ, act like Jesus Christ, I know, I know, I know”, combining with searing guitars.  Feeling Better is ruined by some ill-placed brass, before he signs off with the mellowest thing here, the acoustic Walking Away which features a nice organ.

 

An angrier collection than Copper Blue, for sure, though it doesn’t quite get the pulse racing in the same way.

Album Review: Bob Mould – Black Sheets of Rain

After the (artistically) successful stripped-down departure of Workbook, in 1990 Bob Mould went back to rocking like a man possessed on Black Sheets of Rain.  This album is for lovers of the heavy guitar onslaught.

The powerful title track sets the tone, an almost eight minute long wall of guitars, coming off like a distorted, rocked up version of The Cure's In Your House (from their Seventeen Seconds days). There are several guitar breaks in this track as Mould sings bleak lyrics: "where will you be in my darkest hour of need? Someone stopped the sun from shining".

The rest of the album struggles to measure up to this track, though the brooding One Good Reason comes close to matching the guitar heaven matched with bad moods of the title track (and it's almost as long), and later Hanging Tree is an a similar vein. Elsewhere It's Too Late is a Westerberg-style rocker, Stop Your Crying invents 'emo' alt-rock, The Last Night is a mellow anthem, and weirdly, Disappointed comes off sounding like one of Grant Hart's Husker Du songs!

As with Workbook this album ends with roaring catharsis, this time in the shape of Sacrifice/Let There Be Peace. It's a decent, but barring one or two tracks, inessential follow up to Workbook.

Album Review: Husker Du – Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Husker Du’s second double album, released in 1987 was never going to be a bloated affair with 20 songs zipping by in 69 minutes.  On first listen, all the elements are present and correct, Bob Mould’s furious guitars, Grant Hart’s distinctive drumming… but what’s that… 80s era keyboards on Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope and also Turn It Around?!

Mould’s bludgeoning guitars on the likes of Standing In The Rain, Ice Cold Ice, Could You Be The One? and Bed of Nails are a distinctive improvement.  On the other hand, Hart’s songs are a little weaker than Mould’s, particularly Back From Somewhere and the uninspired boogie of Actual Condition, though Too Much Spice makes a good recovery.

The midtempo guitar sprawl of It’s Not Peculiar hits a little harder than most of the tracks here, pointing towards Sugar/Mould’s solo material, as does No Reservations.  Later, the melodic Up In The Air shows the influence of REM, particularly the backing vocals.

However nothing hits quite as hard as previous Husker Du albums, rendering this album as something of a disappointment after Flip Your Wig and Candy Apple Grey.