Bob Mould | District Line
Unless you’ve been lost in the caves on the Mississippi for the past few decades, if you live in Minnesota you’ve probably heard of Bob Mould and you’ve definitely heard him even if you don’t realize it. In the right circles, the man is a living legend. Hüsker Dü, coupled with a few other bands of it’s day, changed music forever.
But you can’t expect someone to keep changing the world.
With his latest album, District Line, Bob Mould seems less interested in creating something new. That’s not to say it’s a bad album. If I had to venture a guess, Bob’s sick of hearing good music done poorly. Take that cheesy, over-produced modern rock crap, rip it apart, have a good musician write new lyrics and reassemble the songs, and you might have an album sort of like this.
The trouble is that a lot of manufactured bands have come before and done the same styles and sounds. It’s pretty ordinary if you’re not listening. Electric guitar plays melodious distortion with an acoustic taking over the solos, occasional echo on the mike, and a steady drum beat. Try not to let every-day Power ballads taint your pallet, just listen to it as though you’d never heard anything that sounded like it.
The one thing that I really love about this is it’s a fantastic listen if you’ve ever had a bad relationship. Take the song “Again and Again” for instance. “My biggest mistake was taking you back again and again.” All the satisfaction of drunk dialing your ex without the hangover and angry voice mail.
I wouldn’t say this is Bob Mould’s best. Hüsker Dü fans might just turn their nose up at it without a second listen even. But it’s a solid album. So it’s a little sappy here and there, it’s still a pretty good listen. It’s worth keeping it from gathering dust.
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