release date: Feb. 8, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Bob Mould
label: Merge Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Sunshine Rock" (studio session) - 2. "What Do You Want Me to Do" - 3. "Sunny Love Song" - 5. "The Final Years" - 7. "I Fought" - 9. "Lost Faith" - 11. "Send Me a Postcard"
12th studio solo album by Bob Mould is like all his solos produced by Mould and it's his fourth consecutive album to by released on Merge. It's the continued story of the old rock artist, who has found his niche on his older days. It takes off where he left us on Patch the Sky in 2016, which again took off from the two previous releases. The album is Mould's 4th since what many saw as his "comeback" album, Silver Age in 2012 - an album that followed several years with musical experiments and the then most recent "folk rock-ish" Life and Times (2009) - and his most welcomed 2012 rocker presented Mould's nice return to form - something he has proved to keep to ever since.
Sunshine Rock may not appear as alternative and heavy as his most recent studio album, but it still stays very true to the power pop label he is first and foremost associated with. Sometimes he turns up a bit on the alt. rock side of the style, at other times it's more harmonically composed, but it's always power pop with hints and bonds to the old punk rock soul and with a natural link to an American tradition of folk rock as personified by Neil Young, and the album is in my mind one of Mould's more bold releases to share a common ground in songwriting style with his time in Hüsker Dü. In this respect you may compare to Candy Apple Grey (1986) and Warehouse - Songs and Stories (1987). Track #11, "Send Me a Postcard" is a mighty fine cover - originally a blast of a [non-album] song by Dutch [Jefferson Airplane-ish] band Shocking Blue issued as a 7'' single in 1968 [ check the original here ].
The album has been met by positive reviews, although, it hasn't reached the favourable position on the albums chart list as his best charting album in recent years, Beauty & Ruin from 2014. Bob Mould keeps rockin' away - that's what he knows, and he does that better than most. What also comes to mind here, is his long legacy with power pop tunes and how he may find it increasingly difficult not to repeat himself if he doesn't add more to his new material. Having said that, the album is a prolific example of alt. rock craftsmanship and something essential in a collection of contemporary alt rock.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Slant 3,5 / 5, Uncut 4,5 / 5 stars ]
