BOB MOULD - Workbook

I hear the weatherman
He says "It looks like rain for a while"
I guess I'll have to stay inside
Make peanut butter sandwiches
And cry

This has become my Thursday album. Looking for the working week to end, feeling nervous, this album relaxes me.
Don't let this fool you. If listened to in the right volume, this album will make you ears ring right in the middle of track 2. Heck, it took me at least three times to make it through to the end. But it was worth it. Now I can't do without this album. Why is it so great?
Bob Mould, of late Husker Du fame, has gone solo, and in 1989 created this masterpiece.
A collection of songs with two main themes: personal relationships gone wrong ("Heartbreak a Stranger", "Sinners and their Repentances" etc.) and pure nostalgia ("Wishing Well", "Compositions for the Young and Old", "Brasilia Crossed with Trenton"). Now, anybody who's familiar with
Bob Mould and Husker Du, knows that this guy likes to rock, in the most feedback drenched kind of sound. What a surprise this is, when most are accompanied by wonderful cello lines. The album is melancholic, but in no way mellow. It starts with the light jazzy number "Sunspots", but Mould soon kicks into gear in "Wishing Well", a sad song which claims that asking for better things will result in nothing (The well, three wishes run dry/ Wishing well is dry). The sad state Mould is in, repeats on in later songs, whether it's relationships with women (And every time you knock me down/ It's all that I can do to get up off the ground/ Pull myself apart again), or when he's alone (I can count the lonely days/ I get by, as they go by/ Standing in the stairway by this room/ By this room). So he resorts to nostalgia (Used to be that a handshake was a man's word/ Now we settle arguments in court) or pure escapism (I wish for dreams of light/ I live for wishing well surprise). All this sounds like one way ride to the gutter, but Mould is well aware. There is salvage for broken relationships (I can see a little light/ I know you will/ I can see it in your eyes/ I know you still care) and there is danger in self pity (I warn ya, don't go near that road/ I know that road, it's a bitch/ I walk right next to that road/ All hanging out in a ditch).
The lyrics, if you haven't noticed so far, are top of the line. Mould shows a true gift as a poet, beside the great rocker we know him to be. Perfection.

G

NEW NEW NEW!!!

An excerpt from "See a Little Light" (MPEG Audio)

Use ActiveMovie to play it