Long-awaited by fans, this three disc box of all the early Husker Du material is finally here. While I will be the first to say that I\u2019m not as massive a Husker fan as I should be, this package is still interesting nonetheless. Starting chronologically, the record provides quite the inward view of where the band would go in their storied career and what type of influence they would ultimately have on punk rock.<\/p>\n
Beginning with their earliest demos, it\u2019s clear that on some tracks the band already knew where they were headed; they just had to get all of the hardcore punk out of their systems. \u201cSore Eyes\u201d is a really good indicator of the direction the band would end up going much later. Many of the early demos, such as \u201cCan\u2019t See You Anymore\u201d and \u201cAll I\u2019ve Got To Lose Is You,\u201d really show that lyrically, the band was already on par with future classics like \u201cDon\u2019t Want to Know If You Are Lonely\u201d and others. They both are really great examples of the promise that band was already showing. Other tracks like \u201cNuclear Nightmare\u201d and \u201cUncle Ron\u201d are just pure punk fury. Whether they\u2019re actually listenable or not, it\u2019s nice to see the band having some fun and not being totally serious all the time.<\/p>\n
The latter half of disc one and most of disc two are taken up with live tracks. While I\u2019m not a huge fan of live albums, particularly featuring songs I\u2019m not familiar with, there are some winners here. One of the best is \u201cOutside,\u201d which is a great track that belongs with the best of the band\u2019s catalogue. Speaking of the best, the remastered \u201cStatues\u201d is just mind-blowing. It\u2019s so amazingly good that it\u2019s hard to believe it was the band\u2019s first commercially released single! Packed with loads of energy and great vocals from both Hart and Mould, this song is just outstanding.<\/p>\n
For the most part, the live tracks on disc two, which comprise a revised tracklist of 1982\u2019s Land Speed Record, <\/i>are an interesting artifact. The fact the original master tape of Land Speed <\/i>is long gone is why there\u2019s an alternate setlist from the same timeframe. This was a time in the band\u2019s career when they were polishing their future and working out different things. The sound is good, but the songs are often indistinguishable. It all seems to rush by in a punk rock blur.<\/p>\n
Disc three gets to the meat of the bone. Kicking off with a personal favorite, \u201cIn A Free Land,\u201d the band sounds more sure of themselves by the time they\u2019ve gotten to the studio again and you can hear it in these tracks. The crystal-clear sound really is something to behold. On some tracks like \u201cTarget,\u201d they are still in the hardcore vein, and while some tracks are decent, not everything is a winner. But this is the sound of a band in transition, slowly beginning to move from straight punk to something with a little more melody and a lot less bludgeoning volume. <\/p>\n
After listening to these tracks, it\u2019s fair to say I prefer Husker Du as a more melodic sort of punk band, not just deafening hardcore. This set is interesting for all Husker fans but, for the fans that don\u2019t own everything under the sun, this is just a hardcore box. Savage Young Du <\/i>is fascinating overall, but not for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5761],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45142","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\/45142","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\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45142"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}