release date: Sep. 6, 1994
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]
producer: Bob Mould
label: Rykodisc - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Gift" (4 / 5) - 2. "Company Book" - 3. "Your Favorite Thing" (4 / 5) (video) - 4. "What You Want It to Be" (4 / 5) - 5. "Gee Angel" (video) - 7. "Can't Help You Anymore" - 9. "Believe What You're Saying" (4 / 5) (video)
2nd and final full-length studio album by Sugar following 1½ years after the ep Beaster (Apr. '93) and two full years after Copper Blue (Sep. 1992). F.U.E.L. follows nicely as a natural follow-up to the debut but what's more important: it seems to have more in common with Black Sheets of Rain (1990) and perhaps comes even closer to the style of Bob Mould (1996) - both solo albums by Mould, which in a sense shows you that he did what he did, regardless the presence of other band members, and perhaps he may have felt the same confining restraints in Sugar as he experienced while member of Hüsker Dü. At the bottom line, I guess he understood that he might just do it all on his own, as he did when continuing with his third solo album Bob Mould (1996) following his project of Sugar.
A track like "Believe What You're Saying" is a semi-acoustic melodic ballad that bonds perfectly with his best songs on Workbook - again: a solo release. Compared to Copper Blue this still reflects the power pop that bonds to the late Hüsker Dü albums but it's also clear that it's a harder collection of songs - perhaps rebounding the ugliness of the Seattle grunge rock that Mould's former band inspired.
The debut by Sugar is found on several lists enlisting the best of alternativ rock of the early 90s, but in my mind, this is the best of the band's two full-length albums. It's a highly recommended album, although, it may not quite match Mould's very best solo album - the successor, simply titled Bob Mould (1996).
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Q Magazine, Select 4 / 5 stars ]
