Often, tension within a band results in some of the best work
\nthey ever will do. For the Minneapolis punk rock band Husker Du,
\nthe struggle was over leadership of the band, a struggle which
\nalmost always seemed to plague the band. On one side, the
\nballs-out, decibel-shattering cacophany of guitarist Bob Mould; on
\nthe other, the more pop, hit-song orientation of drummer Grant
\nHart. (Caught in the middle of all this is poor Greg Norton, left
\nto thump away on his bass.)<\/p>\n
Amid cries of sell-out when they moved from indie label SST to
\nthe majors, the conflict seemed to come to a head on their major
\nlabel debut,
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i>. And while it didn’t have the rawness that
\nfirst attracted me to the band, it does feature some of their best
\nwork.<\/p>\n
The battle for control is there from the opening notes of
\n“Crystal,” featuring the orgasmic creams of Mould and the guitar
\nwork that sounds like he’s destroying his instrument as he’s
\nplaying it. In a word, incredible.<\/p>\n
But Hart is a formidable songwriter himself; “Don’t Want To Know
\nIf You Are Lonely” and “Sorry Somehow” are solid band efforts that
\nfocus more on the songwriting than the instrumental work.<\/p>\n
But the most powerful moment on
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i> belongs to Mould, who shares the spotlight
\nonly with his 12-string acoustic guitar. “Too Far Down” is a slab
\nof pathos and helplessness that, I don’t think, has ever been
\nequalled in any genre. This is a song that just would not have
\nworked with the entire trio, and has remained one of my favorite
\ntracks.<\/p>\n
Mould stays in an introspective mood for “Hardly Getting Over
\nIt,” which features the entire band. More gentle than the typical
\nHusker Du song, this shift in style is even more powerful than the
\nband flailing away as fast as they could. If this is a sellout,
\nthen put me first in line for whatever they’re selling.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, when the energy level has been set on 11, it
\neventually has to sink. The second half of the album suffers from
\nthis letdown. While “Eiffel Tower High” and “Dead Set On
\nDestruction” would have stood out on their own on another album,
\nthey pale in comparison to the classics presented here.<\/p>\n
So who won the battle for control? On this album, if you go on
\nthe songwriting credits, Mould edges Hart out. But in the end,
\neverybody lost – Husker Du self-destructed while on tour for their
\nfollow-up album to
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i>. Hart released one solo album and
\ndisappered into obscurity, while Mould went on to success both as a
\nsolo artist and with Sugar.<\/p>\n
But
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i> ranks in my book as one of two must-own
\nalbums from Husker Du (I won’t tell which is the other; you’ll just
\nhave to keep reading “The Daily Vault”), and though there are some
\nweaknesses on this one, it still is a strong effort overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5761],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-35647","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-husker-du","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35647"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35647"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}