Day 0772 - Copper Blue

Sugar "Copper Blue" (1992)

After Hüsker Dü called it a day, frontman Bob Mould released a couple of acoustic-y solo albums that didn't fare too well.   His record company released him from his contract and he set about writing the music for what would become Sugar. 

Mould returns to his favoured style of distorted guitars with melodic vocals.  I'll be honest, his stuff doesn't do much for me.   It's generally listenable enough, and I can hear his influence on a few bands I know and like, but these songs really just passed me by without leaving much of an impression.  Same with much of the Hüsker Dü I've heard.

In interviews and press, Sugar were plagued by Nirvana questions and comparisons and whether the band was doing well thanks to the grunge scene.  All this despite Mould's former band having been a probable influence on many of the grunge bands, so that can't have been easy for Mould.

Day 0596 - Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Hüsker Dü "Warehouse: Songs and Stories"

Another album born from a tumultuous, confrontational creative relationship.  Songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart were at loggerheads and  the band disbanded during the tour for this album. The break was partly due to their animosity, and partly over drummer Hart's drug use.

Mould had reportedly told Hart that he'd never have more than half the songs on a Hüsker Dü album, and with neither writer wanting to back down, this ended up being a double album.  Mould contributed 11 songs and Hart 9.

While there are some good tracks on here ("She Floated Away" being one that particularly caught my ear); their sound of melodic vocals over distorted guitar and rattling, pounding drums does tire out over the space of 20 songs.  You find yourself yearning for an acoustic or clean guitar, or for them to go further into realms of heaviness.  Faint criticism though, as any of these songs taken on its own would be perfectly listenable.