Beauty & Ruin
From his days with Hüsker Dü and Sugar to the solo career that’s become his longest-running gig, Bob Mould has stuck to the mix of melody and deafening power chords that have made him an underground favorite since the early \'80s. Here, working with bassist Jason Narducy (formerly of Verbow, currently of Split Single) and drummer Jon Wurster (of Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, and elsewhere), Mould has more room than ever to make a huge noise. Songs like “I Don’t Know You Anymore,” “The War,\" and “Hey Mr. Grey” remind everyone of just how Mould can take a catchy pop song and whip it into a punk frenzy. His signature guitar sound and chording technique is everywhere on what’s counted as his 10th solo album. Mould’s dark side, always a compelling component of Hüsker Dü (“Hardly Getting Over It,” anyone?), is present from the opening grind of “Low Season” and can be heard recurring in the leaner approach of “Forgiveness,” where the older Mould teaches the young Mould a few things about life beyond hardcore.
By all accounts, Bob Mould is on a roll: the former Hüsker Dü frontman's 2011 autobiography and 2012 LP Silver Age were as much capitulations as they were triumphs. His latest solo LP feels like an extension of Silver Age's impassioned buzz and thrust, less a sequel to its counterpart than an appendix.
Bob Mould has spent quite a bit of time examining his back catalog during the last few years. He performed Sugar’s landmark ’92 record, Copper Blue, in its entirety during a series of concerts, and recently unearthed cuts from his ’89 solo debut, Workbook, in support of a reissue. For many artists, such a look back…
Alt-rock veteran continues to sound vital thirty-five years after the formation of the group that made him famous
When Bob Mould released his 2012 album Silver Age, he described it as a companion piece to Copper Blue, an album he had released 20 years earlier with his power-pop trio Sugar.
Discover Beauty & Ruin by Bob Mould released in 2014. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Bob Mould’s been cranking out classics for 35 years, from Hüsker Dü’s deceptively-tuneful blitzkrieg to the heroic powerpop of Sugar, and recently he’s hit upon a rich vein of form. Admittedly, this new ‘un is probably the darkest he’s been since second solo album Black Sheets Of Rain in 1990: Beauty & Ruin was composed in the wake of his father’s death, and morosely mid-paced opener Low Season suggests there’s a rough ride in store.
The past few years have seen Bob Mould return to his hard-rockin' ways.
Album review: Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin. Older, wiser, still rocking: Mould’s as electric as ever...
Reckonings go hand in hand with the riffs and hooks on Bob Mould's 11th solo outing, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
[xrr rating=3.75/5]A funny thing happened to Bob Mould in 2012: after years of rejecting it, he finally seemed to not only accept, but embrace his past.