The Optical Files #4: Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising (1985)

Hey, it's another album randomly chosen from about 180 CDs in Cullen Wade's basement! If you are confused about what's happening or why it's happening on this blog, click here for an intro.

I've written a lot about Hüsker Dü before. I dedicated a song to Grant Hart on my album Death of the Author, & I even covered "Books About UFOs" from this album in a secret track. The Hüskers are one of my favorite bands ever & Mould/Hart are the Lennon/McCartney of punk rock. New Day Rising has a lot going for it. "Celebrated Summer" is maybe the best Mould song of the Hüsker days. Sandpaper sheets of guitar & Hart's aggressive fills punctuate Mould's emotionally naked lyric about the death of childhood. Another Mould showstopper is "I Apologize," transforming the mundane domesticity of lovers' squabbles into furious hardcore power pop perfection. If you don't scream along to "You take out the garbage maybe, BUT THE DISHES DON'T GET DONE!"...well, maybe your home life is more tranquil than mine.

Hart only gets 4 songs here, but he makes them all count. His standout might be "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill," the most Zen Arcade-ish track on an album that is committed to being sonically distinct from its predecessor. Part of that difference is due to SST producer Spot, who collaborates with Mould to introduce his now-signature practice of burying the vocals in the mix. Songs like "Plans I Make" & "Powerline" have nigh-unintelligible lyrics, & "Perfect Example" & "59 Times the Pain" go even further, with Mould speak-singing in a sleepy, bashful mumble that was nowhere to be found on Zen Arcade.

New Day Rising has one major problem: it is frontloaded as hell. Side A slaps you around with stunner after stunner. Side B is fun--"Powerline" rides a great riff, "Whatcha Drinkin" is a throwback to the band's speedy snotpunk Everything Falls Apart days, "Plans I Make" is a brash noise workout with a dumpster filthy guitar tone--but the only stone-cold classic from the album's back half is "Books About UFOs," compared to the jewel box that is the other side. "I Don't Know What You're Talking About" feels like a less successful rewrite of "I Apologize," & "How to Skin a Cat" is simply unnecessary.

If the 7 best songs from this album were issued as an EP, it would have been the band's crowning achievement & maybe the best punk record of all time. Taken as a whole, even though I love it, New Day Rising is the weakest of the band's SST era.