Oh, Bob Mould. Where to start?
At the beginning: I really didn’t want to buy this album. You see, I’ve made the mistake of reading interviews of Bob. The guy has a talent of saying the exact wrong words. I think he was born with a parasitic foot in his mouth. If you like his music, don’t listen to what he has to say. And thank me later.
But, I justified it by wanting to kick Jon Wurster some support. Jon is his current drummer, also of Superchunk, and The Best Show on WFMU. In the end, everybody wins.
This album comes out swinging with the hanging power chords that carved a path through the late 80’s, and they’re gunning for the kids of today. Bitter? Oh yeah. Don’t hate Bob’s game.
But the pace doesn’t stop, and there’s lots of catchy parts to like in Silver Age. I like it because it’s a relentless sound train that drowns out all outside stimuli when using earphones. You know, for the bus!
My resident expert on Bob is Art, who wasn’t so hot on this new one. For him, every song is a clone of an older song. Which may be the case. I like Husker Du, I kinda like Sugar. I don’t love them. So I really only have Zen Arcade, and Copper Blue. It’s all I need. I wouldn’t know if these building blocks have been used before ad nausium. Ignorance is bliss. Or at least an excuse to jam out an album.
I don’t think this will make the top 10 this year. But, you never can tell.