[.ca] Bob Mould

From Amazon.com:
Bob Mould's first solo album in six years (following the demise of Sugar) is unremittingly dark, direct, and brilliant. Entirely self-written, -performed, and -produced, the 11-song collection opens with Mould bellowing that he's "sick of myself, sick of everything I am" and ends with: "If I couldn't hold you I'd end it all." That last song is called "Roll Over and Die," if that helps provide a sense of the situation. In between, Mould rails with brutal bluntness about his personal and creative strife. Someone he "expected to grow old with" has broken his heart, and he's utterly grief-stricken. No matter how many times Mould insists he's "as useless as can be," and that what he creates is "bullshit," the urgency of such cathartic music argues to the contrary. --Steven Stolder

Not his best:
For me, Bob Mould is right up there with Lennon, Westerberg, and Dylan as fas as songwriters go. But he missed the mark on this one. Musically it's uninspired, despite a few flashes of brilliance ("The Next Time That You Leave," "I Hate Alternative Rock"), but lyrically it's fairly clever still. This sounds like an album he could have written and recorded in a week. Production-wise, it's a step backward from his earlier efforts. He's not good at producing himself. More often than not, the drums get lost, the guitar's too far out front and the vocal is self-consciously buried in the mix.

Highly underrated:
Okay: of Bob's five solo albums to date, I'm going to go out on a limb and declare this to be the finest (with full awareness that I will most likely be set upon by a thousand deeply offended "Workbook" fans). There just isn't any filler on this one. My favorites are the tracks that another reviewer has accurately described as the "slow burn" numbers: "Anymore Time Between," "Next Time That You Leave," and "Roll Over And Die" (which closes the album on every bit as harrowing a note as "Explode And Make Up" did on Bob's previous effort, aka Sugar's swan song). There's plenty of other great stuff here, though. Check out "Eg0verride," in which Bob playfully pulls off a lyrically self-deprecating, seemingly electric-guitar-drenched melodic tour de force which actually doesn't feature his signature instrument at all. (Yep: it's all keyboards, fed through what must have been a rat's nest of effects.) Check out the metaphor-driven, acoustic relationship epitaph "Thumbtack" and decide for yourself whether you believe Bob that he wrote it on the fly and recorded it in a single take. Check out "Hair Stew" -- with its big sign reading, "Hi, I'm this album's Experimental Track" -- and keep checking it out until you're convinced that it's a little bit brilliant in its melodic and emotional dissonance. (At the very least, you will end up granting me that it's significantly less annoying than "Megamanic" from the followup album.) And if you still miss that iconic Sugar sound, you've got the blistering "I Hate Alternative Rock," the coulda-shoulda-been-a-single "Deep Karma Canyon," and "Art Crisis" (which loses points in my book only because it's musically and lyrically redundant with "IHAR"). One final note: some have criticized this album for being entirely self-recorded and self-produced on Bob's part, with particular criticism reserved for the electronic drums. As a drummer, I can honestly say that they don't bug me; in fact, I find them considerably less annoying than some of Grant Hart's work with Husker Du. ;)

Bob Mould shoots and scores...big:
Even if Bob Mould's eponymous album (hubcap) was recorded without a band, this is still a very inspired and driving album that shows you that no matter how limited you are in resources, you can still pack a punch. All of this CD is Bob Mould: the instruments, the production, the programming, everything. And while that may translate to indulgence when it comes to certain singer/songwriters, Mould does not overstep his bounds. His focus remains sharp from beginning to end, thanks to the fact that this CD comes off the heals of Mould's last band. In fact, most of the hubcap album comes off sounding like the lost but perfect Sugar album that was left inside of Bob. And while the punk roots are intact with I Hate Alternative Rock and Egoverride, the former Husker Du frontman shows a more somber side with the naked-sounding Thumbtack and the creepy, slow-burn of Hair Stew. The song with most impact is Next Time That You Leave; a harrowing, sparse guitar line trades the spotlight with a bombastic chorus as Mould sings "you are not the person/I expect to grow old with." Of all the Bob Mould albums I have heard, this one has had the biggest impact on me (probably because it carries the ghost of Sugar). This one can't be passed up.

BREAKING THE MOULD!!:
Peerless is a word that comes to mind when one thinks of BOB MOULD.Anyone familiar with his outstanding work as the kingpin in HUSKER DU and then SUGAR will be knocked out by this fiery and deeply personal collection.In fact some of the songs feel so personal that you feel like you are intruding in private grief witness NEXT TIME THAT YOU LEAVE sheer unbridled anger at the breakdown of a relationship with lyrics to match ''You were just a bastard'' BOBS' not one for mincing his words and Much of that mood pervades this album as does his trade mark full on guitar barrage with the glorious vocals set well back in the mix he's like a new age SPECTOR but unlike 'OL PHIL' this man sure can write a catchy song or two ,songs that once heard, buzz around in your brain for days perfect examples being FORT KNOX,KING SOLOMON and DEEP KARMA CANYON both priceless pop/rock gems. BOB MOULD seriously talented and criminally underated. You can redress that balance.

• Anymore Time Between
• I Hate Alternative Rock
• Fort Knox, King Solomon
• Next Time That You Leave
• Egoverride
• Thumbtack
• Hair Stew
• Deep Karma Canyon
• Art Crisis
• Roll over and Die