What is punk? Is it the free-form anger that the Sex Pistols
\nembodied? Is it the “do-it-yourself” attitude that other groups
\npromoted?<\/p>\n
Or, in the case of Minneapolis’s Husker Du, is it a group of
\nthree musicians looking at the state of rock and declaring over the
\ncourse of 23 songs that musical boundaries were meant to be broken?
\nOn what could be their best-known album
\nZen Arcade<\/i>, the latter seems to be the case — and even
\nthough the sound is sometimes painfully raw, the result is one of
\nthe more enjoyable punk albums ever released.<\/p>\n
I first bought this album when I was in college. I don’t
\nremember exactly why I bought it, or what I was looking to
\ndiscover. I think it was that I had recently discovered the joys of
\nBlack Flag (who will eventually make it onto the pages of “The
\nDaily Vault”), and I was interested in discovering some of the
\nother artists on the SST roster. I seem to remember reading a lot
\nof positive things about Husker Du and
\nZen Arcade<\/i>, and decided to drop the $12 for the tape and
\ngive it a spin. What I heard was an awakening in my head.<\/p>\n
Behind the drum kit sat Grant Hart, a solid skin player who was
\na romantic at heart, as well as a decent vocalist and songwriter in
\nhis own right. Fronting the group was guitarist’vocalist Bob Mould,
\nwho often sounds like he’s about to blow out his vocal chords and
\ntreats some songs as the last opportunity he’s going to have to hit
\nthe take. Add to that orgasmic guitar solos filled with feedback,
\nand you have one of the most unsung guitar heroes of the ’80s.
\nTaking all of this in while almost remaining hidden in the shadows
\nwas bassist Greg Norton, who decides to express himself by
\nsupplying Husker Du with a solid rhythm backbone.<\/p>\n
The songs on
\nZen Arcade<\/i> were recorded in one marathon studio session –
\nand sometimes, when you’re being hit with guitar distortion from
\nhell and undecipherable vocals being screamed into your ears, you
\nmight find yourself wishing that a little more time and TLC had
\nbeen put into this album. It’s not that the rough edges are bad,
\nit’s just that an album filled with them gets to be overkill.<\/p>\n
From the opening build of drums to bass to guitar on “Something
\nI Learned Today,” Husker Du is out to capture the rawest emotion in
\nmusic – spontaneity. The power of the performance was all that
\nmattered; everything else would fall into line. Songs like “I Will
\nNever Forget You” and “Beyond The Threshold” might be vocally
\nblurry except for the choruses, and to Husker Du, this is okay.
\n(Songs featuring Hart’s vocals, on the contrary, are much more
\nclear in the vocal department.)<\/p>\n
In a sense, I do wish that Mould had made the vocals a little
\nclearer on
\nZen Arcade<\/i>; while adrenalin carries me to a certain point in
\nthe album, I eventually become a little lost in the sonic barrage.
\nTracks like “Masochism World” and “Somewhere” demonstrate the more
\npositive side of Mould’s vocals (something he would make the
\ndefinitive statement with on
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i>‘s “Too Far Down”).<\/p>\n
Instrumentally, Husker Du makes some bold statements, especially
\nwith the album’s closer “Recurring Dreams,” the last-effort charge
\non your central nervous system which demonstrates the amazing
\ntalent each member of the band has. However, the drug-trip
\nnightmare “The Tooth Fairy And The Princess” is one cut I love
\navoiding.<\/p>\n
In one sense, I really shouldn’t be too critical of Husker Du;
\nthey had already come a long way from their
\nLand Speed Record<\/i> release, which seemed to combine punk and
\nspeed metal in a way I never thought possible (the tape is barely
\nlistenable, though it’s been a few years since I dusted it off).
\nZen Arcade<\/i> was their clearest release to this point in their
\ncareer, although their days as an independent act were quickly
\ncoming to a close.<\/p>\n
\nZen Arcade<\/i> is still the album I would suggest people who
\nwant to get into Husker Du pick up first (followed closely by
\nCandy Apple Grey<\/i> – I’d rather they not hear the polished
\nversion first). It sometimes is a lot to take in during one
\nsitting, but if you have the strength to do so, it’s a journey
\nworth taking, potholes and all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5761],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-35967","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\/35967","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=35967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35967"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35967"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}