Husker Du - Everything Falls Apart & Metal Circus
#185 & #186
October 1983
Husker Du
Everything Falls Apart & Metal Circus EP
Everything Falls Apart
3.5 out of 5
Metal Circus
3.75 out of 5
I’m doing these together because I’ve never really given Husker Du their due (he he he) aside from a handful of songs and Warehouse, which is their most poppy and therefore the only one I really ever listened to. Cuz I suck that way. Also because Everything Falls Apart in its original form is sort of an EP anyway.
Everything Falls Apart
Here’s my hot take:
Grant Hart was the better songwriter than Bob Mould, pound for pound and Everything Falls Apart helps prove that inasmuch as it’s 90% Mould (and just a lot of junkpunk ala DKs who were melding punk with surf rock so it was palatable while being angry as hell. I’d recommend their cover od Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” but it’s standard issue speed punk chorus. I kind of think that’s not Mould on lead vocals, it’s a little higher than he usually is and also more melodic. But, it doesn’t deserve highlighting.
Hart doesn’t have much in the way of contribution until “Wheels”, which isn’t great, but does serve a bass driven change of pace from Mould’s thrashing.
They would do so much better and soon. Go listen to Minor Threat or Black Flag if you wanna hear this stuff done better.
Metal Circus
Highlights:
It’s Not Funny Anymore
Diane
Out on a Limb
Metal Circus is almost the same length as Everything so…maybe they should be looked at 2 halves of the same coin. Circus opens a lot angrier, if that’s even possible, then the previous record. There is an attempt at musicality on “Real World” that cut through for me. The primal screaming of Mould’s almost elevates “Deadly Skies” to classic hardcore level. But it’s when we to low-fi garage rock of “It’s Not Funny Anymore” that I find myself appreciating the band. And, lo and behold…that’s Hart.
Mould’s guitars are lacerating but ultimately leave me wanting as does most of the record…
Until…
Diane.
Unlike anything I’ve heard from Husker Du, this one hurts. It’s terrifying. It’s like Lisa Germano’s “A Psychopath” in its horror.
Rock History has been written and Bob Mould has come out the winner of the “who is one of the most important voices in punk music” battle. But it was Grant Hart who knew how to cut to the heart of punk’s emotional core. And he paid for it with drug addiction and marginalization. But, sorry, Bob. It was Grant all along.
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