Sugar

During Bob Mould's coming-of-rage in the mid-to-late Eighties – when he was the tormented
guitarist and frontman for the seminal thrash-rock band Hüsker Dü – he masterfully mixed
atom-smashing guitar fury and savvy popcraft. But after the airy melodies and moody
atmospherics on Workbook, his pared-down 1989 solo debut, Mould reprised the Hüskers'
tumultuous roar on Black Sheets of Rain – in which his melodic gifts were nearly... More >

The miracle isn't that Bob Mould has progressed, thank God. It's that he's picked up where he left off. After six years spent straining over Warehouse: Songs and Stories and two overarranged records with his name on the cover (why do you think they call them solo efforts?), he not only fabricates a Hüsker Dü album but makes it sound as if it just rushed out of him, like a great Hüsker Dü album should. Never mind who takes Grant Hart's place, because it isn't the new drummer. Fashioning the popwise tunes that were always Hart's specialty and taking on all the vocals himself, the new musician is Mould. Maybe he has progressed after all. (Grade: A-)