The 1984 Listening Post - Husker Du - Zen Arcade

Husker Du - Zen Arcade

#172

July 1 1984

Husker Du

Zen Arcade

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Never Talking to You Again

What’s Going On

Pink Turns to Blue

Whatever

Turn on the News

Reoccurring Dreams

I think it’s time for me to just admit it. I don’t think I care for Husker Du. Okay. Not Du, per se, just Bob Mould. The fact that he, and not Grant Hart, has bent music critics to the belief that Mould is the musical genius after he has trashed Hart, ran over Grant with his disdain and then Hart died after creating some of the best barely heralded alternative records in the biz. 

Mould’s songs sound like they are recorded by someone who knows his voice sucks so he buries it under layers of mixes. It’s as though he is so insecure with who he is that he is embarrassed that what he really wants to do is write dance music for clubs (this is a true thing, btw). 

I know ZA is heralded for its diversity but I feel like that diversity comes from Hart’s influence and contributions not Mould’s. Case in point everything that leads up to “What’s Going On”, which sounds at first like thrash metal but is really a garage rock cum punk outing and a compelling one at that. 

It’s on the middle of Side Two right through Side Three that everything seems to come together and that, I believe, is because Grant is the co-writer on all of those tracks. I even like the Mould tracks but I do wish he was better mixed, especially the Beatles Revolution #9 weirdness of “The Tooth Fairy and the Princess”.

But the real gem here is (again) Hart’s brilliant punk/alternative manifesto, “Turn on the News”, a groovy, assertive, melodic garage rock piece that calls to mind all that came before (Radio Birdmen, Iggy and the Stooges) and after (early Hellacopters).

It’s the 13 minute Jazz/Metal hybrid that truly amazes, though. 

It’s well documented that this album was recorded and mixed in about 80 hours. If only they had taken more time and gotten a producer…who am I kidding? This would still be the era classic it has been regarded. 

The biggest travesty in the annals of punk rock history is that, while Husker Du has been lauded as an innovator and influencer, without Grant Hart, Bob Mould remains some schmuck in Minnesota who loves the Ramones and ends up with some cubicle job, playing bad punk on the side.