Kent Glenzer<\/a>). I just never made it over the hump with the D\u00fc.<\/p>\nAnyway.<\/p>\n
H\u00fcsker D\u00fc was known, as much as anything, for championing a more melodic and musically ambitious approach to punk than what had gone before. Their early recordings and performances were pure adrenaline, but as they actually learned to play, their sonic palette began to expand, blossoming for good on 1984\u2019s landmark Zen Arcade<\/i> double LP. Mould\u2019s post-D\u00fc career has seen him issue 14 solo albums sandwiched around a four-year run as frontman for the early-\u201990s alt-rock\/power-pop trio Sugar.<\/p>\n
One thing\u2019s for certain; hitting the second half of his 50s has not mellowed Mould at all. The cathartic punk rage that fueled early H\u00fcsker D\u00fc can still be detected in the headlong attack of the first four tracks of Sunshine Rock<\/i>. The beauty is, though, that there\u2019s so much more going on now. Mould has, it\u2019s evident, continued to hone his craft year after year without ever losing his connection to the livewire fury that animated him to play music in the first place.<\/p>\n
The opening title track, quoted above, is bright, angry, dark, and sweet, an urgent anthem that often feels like it\u2019s about to careen off a cliff, at least until a string section comes sweeping in out of nowhere to like a booster rocket lifting the song into the stratosphere. On first listen the song felt like a confusing jumble; by the fourth every neuron above my neck was firing and the moment it finished, I just wanted to hear it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cSunshine Rock\u201d barrels right into \u201cWhat Do You Want Me To Do?,\u201d a tight power-pop interrogation that feeds directly into the equally fiery \u201cSunny Love Song,\u201d a punchy tune about overcoming dead-of-winter depression by writing, well, sunny love songs. \u201cSome days my brain blows up in elegant ways \/ My muse, short fuse, time bomb, what\u2019s left to lose?\u201d Mould then asks in the furious, cathartic \u201cThirty Dozen Roses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing Mould\u2019s history, it\u2019s impossible to miss the ebb and flow of musical influence floating around in these tunes, the frenetic abandon of the Replacements here, the bold guitar-heavy melodicism of the Gin Blossoms there, both of them heavily influenced by H\u00fcsker D\u00fc. The mixing and matching endures through the rest of the album, from big, heavy tunes like \u201cIrrational Poison\u201d and \u201cSin King\u201d to airier numbers like the rather elegiac \u201cThe Final Years\u201d and the R.E.M.-ish \u201cLost Faith.\u201d \u201cPoison,\u201d \u201cYears\u201d and \u201cFaith\u201d mirror the title track by incorporating strings to augment the basic melody without blunting the songs\u2019 visceral impact. Just in case D\u00fc fans are afraid Bob\u2019s gone soft, though, he plants 2:36 of pure punk aggression and shredding vocals smack in the middle with the aptly-named \u201cI Fought.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tail end of the album is at least as strong as everything that preceded it. The kinder, gentler \u201cCamp Sunshine\u201d offers an affectionate reminiscence of music camp as a kid, writing songs and loving every day; with just strummed electric, a shaker, and his voice, it\u2019s a Bob Mould ballad, to the extent such a thing exists. And a positive-minded one at that: \u201cPeople get together, people fall apart, people do the best they can \/ We can\u2019t predict the future, can\u2019t forget the past \/ Just enjoy the moments we have.\u201d <\/p>\n
The only cover here, \u201cSend Me A Postcard\u201d is a ringing, energetic take on a somewhat obscure 1968 single from psychedelic hard rockers Shocking Blue that fits right in here. Finally, closer \u201cWestern Sunset\u201d is a big-boned thumper, but one that leans hard on the melody, more power-pop than post-punk in feel, with an orchestra and three-part harmonies providing steadily increasing lift as the song builds to a satisfying crescendo. <\/p>\n
At 12 songs and 37 minutes, Sunshine Rock<\/i> is both tight and loose, an album whose tone neatly reflects its physical appearance: deep black with brilliant sunbursts of color, a collection that\u2019s simultaneously brooding and upbeat, affectionate and ferocious, eloquent and raw. \u201cI always aim for the perfect balance of bright melodies and dark stories,\u201d Mould said in 2016. Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6743],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45546","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\/45546","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45546"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}