495 - Husker Du - New Day Rising

I was mildly familiar with Husker Du (but moreso Sugar/Bob Mould) until last year when I decided to download and listen to their experimental, two-disc collection Zen Garden. That album precedes New Day Rising. While I was intrigued by the way that Husker Du stretched what an independent "hardcore" band could do on that album, it isn't an album I find myself wanting to listen to again. The same can't be said for New Day Rising.

The title track starting things off with a heartbeat of drums followed by a cacophony of guitar filling the speakers. A rock trio had rarely given listeners tinnitus so quickly. Despite the frontal guitar assault, there is no denying that there is melody in the song. After reading how the band had craved to produce this album themselves but were stuck with SST's in-house producer, Spot, again, I do wonder how the album would have sounded if they could have ditched Spot's habitual lo-fi production. Would the melody have stood out in songs like "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill?" Bob's voice is able to break out from the noise more often than Grant, so I found myself enjoying Bob's songs ("I Apologize" and "Celebrated Summer").

All of the first half of the album continues Husker Du's stretching of what hardcore punk could do. It is only on a few of the songs in the latter half that they resemble some of their record labelmates. Other than "Celebrated Summer" and "I Apologize"(written by Bob), the songs that that stood out to me were the ones credited to the whole band. The title track, "How to Skin a Cat," and "Plans I Make" blend what I like about Bob's songs with a little more experimentation with the sound. "How to Skin A Cat" is a wild song that smashes spoken word, nearly jazzy punk noise, spastic drumming, and periods of slashing, spiral guitar riffs. More intriguing than enjoyable at times, but definitely no where close to the mold of the rest of the acts on SST.


Songs I knew I liked: None, this album was completely new to me.

Songs I didn't know but now like: "New Day Rising," "Celebrated Summer," "I Apologize" (which sounds like most of the songs recorded by many early 90's punk bands such as Rancid) and, to a lesser extent, "Plans I Make" grabbed my attention.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Whatcha Drinkin'" is such straight-ahead hardcore that it seems like a lazy song after hearing everything else on the album.

494 - Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

It is hard for me to judge this album as "an album." Five of the first six songs are ingrained in my brain as superb singles in the early 80's when I first started exploring Top 40 music. Songs like "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time," and "She Bop" are all iconic in my memories of early 80's pop. These songs are all a bit different from each other and don't rely upon a particular sound or vocal delivery. There are some similarities when you listen to "Girls..." and "She Bop" back to back and "Time After Time" and "All Through the Night" together. But this isn't an album where an artist has a sound and milks it in the various songs; Cyndi shows some sanitized punk flavors and nails the pop ballads...all on one side of the record.

Alas, as much as I tried to analyze the first half of the album despite their iconic status, things kind of fall to pieces from such high consistency once you get to "Witness." Are the songs on the second half bad? No...just rather boring. "I'll Kiss You" may have been better in the hands of the B-52's and "Yeah Yeah" sounds like it was stolen from Oingo Boingo. The short, quirky Betty Boop-esque "He's So Unusual" definitely belongs on the album, but doesn't really do much to add to Cyndi's persona.

Songs I knew I liked: Basically the first 6 tracks - "Money Changes Everything," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "When You Were Mine," "Time After Time," "She Bop," and "All Through the Night"

Songs I didn't know but now like: The second half of the album lacks the zip that characterizes the first half, so I didn't come away from this album with a new song discovery.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Witness," "I'll Kiss You," and "Yeah Yeah"