Husker Du

With 1986's Candy Apple Grey, Husker Du left their indie roots, signed to Sire Records and ... nothing was really that different. Like X and the Replacements, major labeldom didn't expand their fanbase or sales much. Thankfully, Husker Du didn't change their "birth of grunge/alt country/indie rock/whatever" sound either. Grant Hart's scorching "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" got them a little college rock airplay, while Bob Mould's melancholic "Hardly Getting Over It" puts their mature songcraft front and center.

Any fears that Hüsker Dü's move to a major label might signal dilution, concession or
crossover get "sucked out of the first-class window" in the first few seconds of
auricle-bending clatter on "Crystal," this album's opening cut. "Crystal" provides a metaphor
for the splintering of consciousness in the Information Age: "When civilization falls in its
grave/Technology throws on the dirt." Bob Mould's startlingly new, yet eerily fa... More >