CD Reviews

Bob Mould

District Line | Anti-

By TED DROZDOWSKI | February 20, 2008

3.0 Stars

The bristling sound of alternative rock — as the more refined pop-craft division of post-punk got dubbed in the late ’80s — was built on signatures like the rugged, droning guitar chug that drives “Stupid Now,” the opener of Bob Mould’s new solo disc. No surprise when you consider that Mould, along with Sonic Youth and the Pixies, was among the genre’s most influential architects as the leader of Hüsker Dü. Today his wall of six-strings is just slightly less imposing. The galloping juggernaut “Who Needs To Dream” could be a leftover from his sleek ’90s radio powerhouse group Sugar. Yet Mould’s growth as an arranger and songwriter can be measured in the vivid storytelling and acoustic/electric textures of a number like “Again and Again” — a road yarn and break-up song with undertones of menace and liberation. And the keyboards that colored his swan dive into dance music before he re-embraced rock with 2005’s Body of Song are simply another subtle layer of muscle for this sinewy disc.

Bob Mould Band | Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | March 12 | 617.562.8800

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 02/20 ] "Optical Noise: American & British Prints/Films from the 1960s-1970s: @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 02/20 ] Third Annual Providence Children's Film Festival @ Cable Car Cinema

[ 02/20 ] "The Providence Postcard Project" @ Brown University's Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI

TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM! | August 23, 2011
Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.

COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK | January 11, 2011
This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.

MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES | November 02, 2010
This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.

IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010 | October 11, 2010

REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE | September 07, 2010
Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.