release date: Jan. 19, 1987
format: cd (1992 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,22]
producer: Bob Mould & Grant Hart
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "These Important Years" - 2. "Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope" - 3. "Standing in the Rain" - 5. "Ice Cold Ice" (4,5 / 5) (live 2012) - 7. "Could You Be the One?" (4 / 5) (live) - 9. "Friend, You've Got to Fall" (4 / 5) - 10. "Visionary" - 11. "She Floated Away" - 12. "Bed of Nails" - 14. "It's Not Peculiar" (4,5 / 5) - 16. "No Reservations" (5 / 5) - 17. "Turn It Around" ( 4 / 5) - 18. "She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man)" (live) - 19. "Up in the Air" (5 / 5) [ cover by Heidi Berry ]
6th and final studio album by Hüsker Dü follows only 10 months after Candy Apple Grey (Mar. '86) and was originally released as a double vinyl album produced by Bob Mould and Grant Hart who practically divide the writing credits between them - 11-9 in Mould's favor on the total of 20 tracks, but with a more equal share by the two than earlier (according to Grant, Mould made sure there he maintained a 55/45 % advantage in the numbers of songs represented by the two). Prior to the recording sessions Hart was both diagnosed Hepatitis C and HIV-positive - the latter diagnosis proving incorrect after the band split in '87.
The style is not far from what is found on Candy Apple Grey. Perhaps this is less folk rock-inspired and focusing more on alt. rock and power pop with some links to the near past of punk rock. The album has always been my favourite by the band, and to me, this also shows Mould as the more harmony-founded and Hart as the more complex songwriter of the band. Tensions between Mould and Hart had long led to increased tension - some suggest that Mould could no longer accept Hart's drug addiction - others that Hart proved to be Mould's equal and challenged Mould's role as leader. Fact is, the band dissolved at some point during its '87-tour, while Hart was undergoing methadone-treatment. The album received wide-spead acclaim and it's the only Hüsker Dü album enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Three singles were issued to promote the album: Track #7 and track #18, followed by track #5.
After the split, bassist Greg Norton stopped as a musician and concentrated on a life running a restaurant business for the next two decades after which he returned to music in 2006 in the band The Gang Font. The two songwriters continued their individual careers in music. Grant Hart released his solo debut album Intolerance (1989) and then founded and continued in the band Nova Mob for two album releases before again returning to a solo career. Bob Mould released two solo albums Workbook (1989) and Black Sheets of Rain (1990) before forming the trio Sugar for three album releases after which he also returned to a solo career.
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5, 👎Rolling Stone 3 / 5, 👍Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
1987 Favourite releases: 1. The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come - 2. U2 The Joshua Tree - 3. Hüsker Dü Warehouse: Songs and Stories
