Sugar – The National Stadium – Live Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Bob Mould – Whelans – Live Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

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/

Album Review: Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin

Review for www.spillmagazine.com

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

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: Bob Mould | Silver Age

Review for www.meg.ie http://www.meg.ie/bob-mould-silver-age/

Album Review: Bob Mould – Workbook

Never got into Husker Du, but I greatly enjoyed Bob Mould’s Copper Blue album recorded with Sugar, so decided to check out his solo work. His first solo album, released in 1989, is fairly removed from Husker Du or Sugar, with a lot more acoustic-based tracks. That’s not to say Bob Mould is sitting back, there is plenty of intensity throughout this album.

It kicks off with a Durutti Column style instrumental, Sunspots, featuring plenty of intricate guitar work. Wishing Well is an hard rocking acoustic track, full of angst and vitriol. What sets it apart however is great use of cello, and a blistering electric guitar. A ringing, elegiac electric guitar motif opens Heartbreak A Stranger, which goes right through the track, without making it repetitive. It’s like the moodier side of grunge, before grunge went mainstream. It makes some impression, when you listen to this one a few times, you’ll feel like it’s been part of your life for years.

See A Little Light is a deceptively simple sounding melody, reminding me of those Lemonheads anthemic chord progressions that are so satisfying to play. Poison Years on the other hand is a darker, brooding track with lyrical nuggets such as “the more I think, the less I’ve got to say” which builds into some fiery guitar work before the track’s conclusion.

Sinners and their Repentances pleads like nothing else this side of Mark Eitzel. Later in the album, Lonely Afternoon is a very palatable acoustic rocker and Dreaming, I Am showcases pure passion from Bob Mould over almost Johnny Marr-like guitars. He totally loses it in Whichever Way The Wind Blows, screaming blue murder over a monumental wall of powerful, distorted guitars.

Wish I’d come across this one years ago as these songs sound absolutely timeless. I’m officially claiming this as a great lost classic.

Album Review: Sugar – Copper Blue

I have to admit that I’m largely unfamiliar with Bob Mould’s former band Husker Du, so discovering this 1992 album was an unexpected delight. It’s mostly heavy rock with crunchy guitars and great tunes.

The Act We Act roars out of the speakers with a great riff and a stomping beat, featuring a soaring guitar solo in the middle. A Good Idea cannot really be discussed without mentioning the Pixies (the beginning of the song imitates Debaser) though it turns into a pretty vital song with a nagging, insistent chorus. Changes follows in a similar vein, as do most of the songs on the album.

Helpless is a standout, with a terrific instant classic sounding guitar riff which you can’t believe you haven’t heard before. On The Slim, Mould gets ever more desperate in his vocals, bellowing them out towards the end of the song. It’s intense and hard to know where to go after this one, but the album changes gears completely after this with the acoustic guitar strum-along If I Can’t Change Your Mind, which is probably the poppiest thing on the album.

The album is a feast of guitars, and belongs in anyone’s collection.