release date: May 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Bob Mould
label: Virgin Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Black Sheets of Rain" - 3. "It's Too Late" (4 / 5) - 5. "Stop Your Crying" - 8. "Hear Me Calling" (4 / 5) - 9. "Out of Your Life" (4 / 5)
2nd solo album by Bob Mould sees him in a return to alt. rock and power pop after the more folk rock and singer / songwriter-shaped debut Workbook (1989). He has also returned to a familiar setup of a three-man piece: Mould on vocals and guitar is backed by Tony Maimone on bass and Anton Fier on drums and percussion. Both were part of a slightly bigger backing band on his debut.
Together with the Hüsker Dü releases this forecasts the whole 'grunge' movement with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Soundgarden etc, as it's more "one-way" directed and also more coherent than it's predecessor. A track like "It's Too Late" could almost very easily have been included on Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987) the last great album by Hüsker Dü but it also points to the new material by Sugar.
After this his second solo album Mould initiated the project Sugar with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis, and in 1992 they released the much lauded debut Copper Blue.
[ allmusic.com, Spin 3 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
