Bob Mould has been on something of a renaissance as of late, with 2012\u2019s Silver Age <\/i>restoring his joyful pop-punk-rock chops and 2014\u2019s Beauty & Ruin <\/i>showing a more contemplative, heavy side in both music and weighty lyrics. Patch The Sky <\/i>is sort of an amalgamation of these two approaches, loud and churning and affirmative.<\/p>\n
In short, it\u2019s Mould\u2019s best record in a long time.<\/p>\n
The 12 songs are all blasts of hard rock through Mould\u2019s various incarnations; the rush of Husker Du, the more pop side of Sugar, the noises of \u201880s underground alternative, and \u201890s commercial alt-rock and early 2000-era punk-pop all swirling in a rush. Mould and his two bandmates (the powerful Jon Wurster and Jason Narducy) create an intoxicating array of riffs, some more melancholy than others, but all incendiary and garage-rock worthy. <\/p>\n
To be sure, those who appreciated college rock radio in the late \u201880s and early to mid \u201890s will feel the most at home here. If you felt Husker Du, Sonic Youth, early R.E.M., and the Pixies spoke to you, the sound of this record on songs like \u201cThe End Of Things\u201d evokes that wonderful style of songwriting. Elsewhere, \u201cYou Say You\u201d is the kind of Foo Fighters song that Dave Grohl hasn\u2019t written since \u201cEverlong,\u201d and it\u2019s every bit as good as that track. \u201cLosing Sleep\u201d is fantastic, with Narducy\u2019s bass taking lead while Mould\u2019s guitar is pushed back, allowing Wurster\u2019s snare drum to crack like a whip through the din. It\u2019s a break from the cheerful assault of the first four songs and shows a diversity in songwriting; it\u2019s also as catchy as a virus and I\u2019m going to download it as soon as I get home.<\/p>\n
Mould\u2019s lyrics tend toward darker themes like the end of the world, mortality, loss, and wondering when he will find the optimism that comes naturally to others, but he never wallows, instead finding hope and energy in the music. \u201cHands Are Tied\u201d and \u201cLosing Time\u201d are all youthful punk-pop energy, \u201cDaddy\u2019s Favorite\u201d throws out some great riffs, and the closing \u201cMonument\u201d slows things down with reflective, honest lyrics and the same power as the rest of the disc, but it\u2019s a little more potent when allowed to simmer instead of boil.<\/p>\n
Patch The Sky <\/i>manages to be bracing and life affirming, contemplative and joyous, free of pretension and necessary to your day. It\u2019s one of the great rock albums of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6743],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44467","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-mould","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44467","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44467"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44467"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}