HUSKER DU The Living End (Warner Bros)
At their creative peak, Husker Du combined infectious pop melodies with a high-speed, distorted hardcore sound, creating a wrenching, gorgeous yowl like no one had ever heard before. From one amazing album to another, this tense amalgam of opposing styles produced cathartic gems for both anarchy addicts and pop thrill seekers alike. But by the time I had my little talk with Jeanne, the trio’s formal command had become so effortless that the tension seemed finally mastered, subdued, and, perhaps, formulaic. While on tour during the summer of ’87 to promote their final album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories, the trio even played songs from the record in exact, mind-numbing sequence, as if to acknowledge their creative stasis. For the naysayers, their sudden breakup the following January was the only logical step left.
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On Sugar’s new File Under: Easy Listening, Mould takes professionalism one step further to make that rarest of products, a thoroughly mature alternative album. The tunes are often extremely simple–the melodies, riffs, and bass lines could be generic–but they’re all rooted by accomplished arrangements and, most notably, striking lyrics. “Granny Cool” is the kind of put-down Mould has been writing for approximately ever but never with this kind of detached humor; “Gee Angel” and “Explode and Make Up” are two more entries in Mould’s long list of break-up songs, but they’re the most well wrought and compelling of the lot; “Your Favorite Thing,” as far as I can tell, is a Bob Mould first–an ecstatic love song.
