First off, please allow me to refute a phrase I keep seeing
in other reviews of Silver Age: this
fantastic album is in no way a “return to form” for Bob Mould. If anyone really thinks that it is, I beg of
them to give his last two, 2008’s District
Line and 2009’s Life and Times, another
try. They’re both fine records chock full
of the emotionally and melodically engaging material that Mould’s name is
practically synonymous with.
What Silver Age
does represent is a return to a band feel, reminiscent of Mould’s early ‘90s
time fronting Sugar. The main difference
between Mould’s last few albums and this one is the livelier, more off-the-cuff
feel of its production and presentation, and that’s entirely the difference
between mostly going it alone, as he did on his last few albums, and recording
with sympathetic accompaniment, as he does here. I can’t say enough good things about bassist
Jason Narducy and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, and the electric charge they’ve
brought to this batch of songs.
And what a selection of songs it is. Every now and then, even an artist as consistent
in writing quality as Mould comes up with a batch of new ones that’s juiced
with that little something extra. It’s
an intangible quality, well beyond what a critic can describe in words, but as
fans we all know it when we hear it.
Delving into Silver Age’s
individual tracks is nearly pointless: they’re all top caliber, and they all
bounce off one another in that way that only happens on truly special
albums. The lead single, “The Descent”,
is a good choice as far as a four-minute sampler for the album goes, but
really: if you’ve ever loved any facet of Mould’s career, Silver Age is a sure bet.
His current live show is also a sure bet: opening with the
entirety of Sugar’s 1992 debut Copper
Blue, surely one of Mould’s absolute career highlights, then offering a
good chunk of the new album before settling into a final run of Hüsker Dü
classics, his performance at Williamsburg Park in Brooklyn last Friday night
was a complete winner. I haven’t always
been sold on Mould playing the Hüsker catalog with other bands, but Narducy and
Wurster are absolutely the right men for the job. The latter in particular was able to
incorporate the signature idiosyncrasies of Grant Hart’s drumming into his own,
more tutored playing without sacrificing the character and charm of Hart’s
original parts. As for Mould, he’s
never seemed so at ease with himself and his songs as he does right now, and it
shines through in his performance.
One of the evening’s more memorable moments came courtesy of
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn, who guested on vocals for a rousing version of
Hüsker Dü’s classic “Something I Learned Today”. By any objective standard, Finn’s performance
was so-so: his vocal style isn’t a great fit with the song, and he seemed to get
a bit lost lyrically here and there. So
why was it great? Because he was the
embodiment of everyone in the audience: the wide “I can’t believe I’m singing a
song from Zen Arcade with Bob Mould”
grin wasn’t something he could have faked if he tried. He, like myself and the rest of the assembled
crowd, probably grew up with and to Mould’s music, and let’s be honest: if
Mould asked me to sing “Something I
Learned Today”, I’d probably goof up out of excitement a few times, too.
To grow up with an artist’s music is an amazing, personal
thing, and Zen Arcade is certainly
one of those albums that a lot of folks somewhere between my and Craig Finn’s
age grew up to. To be able to continue
to grow with that same artist’s later work is the mark of true greatness: Silver Age means as much to me right now
at thirty-eight as Copper Blue did at
eighteen, as Zen Arcade would have
meant to me a year or three before that if I’d been cool enough to know about
it then. Really, there is no greater
compliment one can offer an artist than that.
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