I'm not sure I stand by what I wrote earlier this year about New Day Rising being the weakest of Hüsker Dü's SST era. Yes, that album is frontloaded & has more throwaway tracks than Flip Your Wig. New Day Rising has 6 stone-cold, inarguable classics; this one has 7. But for some reason I can't explain, on any given day I'd usually rather toss on New Day Rising than Flip Your Wig. The result is that I've heard this album significantly fewer times--was there a chance it still had some surprises in store for me?
Hüsker Dü convinced SST to let them self-produce like they did back in the Everything Falls Apart days, but the sound is not noticeably different from what Spot was doing for them. (There's certainly not as big a leap as there was from this to their major-label followup.) One thing that's evident, especially on the Mould songs, is his tendency to bury his vocals, a stylistic choice that started on New Day Rising & continues to this day in his solo career. Other than that, the bass is just as hollow, the guitars are just as trebly, the drums are just as reverbed as they always were--in other words, the production is perfect for this band.
In a similar ratio to last time, Hart gets 5 songs here (4 if you discount the throwaway 46-second joke "The Baby Song), compared to Mould's 9. But half the classics on here belong to Grant: the chaotic love song "Every Everything," the tranquil love song "Green Eyes," with a '60s pop-inspired wordless middle 8, & the nostalgia-embracing ode to growing up without growing old, "Flexible Flyer." The only Hart song that doesn't hit is "Keep Hanging On," where a fine lyric isn't well-served by a rough-throated, less than melodic vocal delivery.
Mould's "Games" suffers a similar fate, with an awkward verse melody & uninspired bridge. The lyrics are fantastic, though, on a topic that Mould has written many songs about. From what I can gather, he is a guy who had to be convinced as a youngster that he wasn't better off just living in his head. Adding in the complexity of being gay & closeted until his 30s, you can understand the push & pull of the exciting world on one hand & the safety of his interiority on the other. Another Mould song that falls a little flat is the repetitive, almost meditative "Find Me," which is lyrically a less successful version of "Chartered Trips" from Zen Arcade.
The Mould songs that succeed, though, succeed wildly. The irrepressibly melodic title track, the ebullient poppy "Makes No Sense At All," the corrosive but joyful "Private Plane," & the album's best song, "Divide and Conquer." Over a deceptively triumphant guitar melody, Mould moans his frustrations about the suburbizing of America & the rot it's caused to our communal spirit. Maybe it's glibly anti-modernist, maybe it's "old man yells at cloud," but goddammit I can't help but thrash about & sing along.
So yeah: this album is better sequenced than New Day Rising, & the average level of songwriting is just a smidge better. The highs might not be quite as high (do I prefer "Celebrated Summer" over "Divide and Conquer"? please don't make me choose), but the lows aren't as low. Of course, when you're talking about those 2 albums, it's like comparing Michelangelo's David to his Pietà. It's probably better to just concede that they are 2 stunning, epochal works of art & if you must rank them, just flip a damn coin.
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