{"id":1617,"date":"2014-06-26T09:35:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T13:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2014-07-03T09:57:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T13:57:58","slug":"bob-mould-beauty-ruin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/bob-mould-beauty-ruin\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Mould <br>Beauty &#038; Ruin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/bob_mould-beauty_ruin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1619\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/bob_mould-beauty_ruin.jpg\" alt=\"Bob Mould, Beauty &amp; Ruin\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/bob_mould-beauty_ruin.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/bob_mould-beauty_ruin-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Mr. Mould worked slowly but surely on his \u201creturn to form\u201d for four years or so, beginning with the middle bits of 2009\u2019s <i>Life and Times<\/i> and climaxing with 2012\u2019s <i>Silver Age<\/i>. The latter was the first time in 15 years he was content\u2014determined, even\u2014to give his fans what they seemed to really want from him. <i>Silver Age<\/i> delivered 10 straight tracks of hooks, fuzz, and momentum that recalled the whirligig of Mould\u2019s youth. So now what? Purists will shake their fists, but I find <i>Beauty &amp; Ruin<\/i> (Merge Records) even more rewarding than its predecessor. <i>Silver Age<\/i> comes at you like a solid block of distortion. But <i>Beauty &amp; Ruin<\/i> gives you room to move and shows more sides of Bob\u2019s well-aged songwriting personality, often showcasing numerous perspectives (and personal ones, at that) in a single song.<\/p>\n<p>A few examples: \u201cHey Mr. Grey\u201d \u00a0whips up of youthful frenzy, spewing vitriol on the young. \u201c\u2018Hey Mr. Grey,\u2019 that\u2019s what the children say. Life used to be so hard\u2014get off my yard.\u201d It\u2019s a really funny, poppy song about aging and resignation. \u201cForgiveness\u201d hints at some of Mould\u2019s sonic interests beyond the maximum rock &amp; roll for which he\u2019s most loved. It\u2019s a welcome change in the middle of the set and features the rawest, most emotional singing on the album. And then there\u2019s \u201cLet the Beauty Be,\u201d with its acoustic guitar intro and featuring a mostly shallow lyric about shaking off the bad times and trying not to take your friends down with you. It\u2019s full of platitudes, and Bob knows it, hence the doo-doo-doo-doo\u2019s finishing out the song. He sounds simultaneously inspired and fully aware of the futility of expressing it, but he\u2019s giving it a shot anyway, singing \u201cit may not be too much, but it\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Worry not, though. Husker D\u00fc fans need only look to \u201cLittle Glass Pill\u201d and \u201cKid with the Crooked Face\u201d to get their wig-flipping quotient. But it\u2019s the Sugar fans who really win out, with tracks like \u201cThe War,\u201d \u201cFire in the City,\u201d and \u201cTomorrow Morning\u201d evoking the now-legendary trio. Finally, \u201cI Don\u2019t Know You Anymore\u201d is easily the catchiest song Mould has released since the early \u201990s. Maybe the difference between this album and <i>Silver Age<\/i> is that Bob doesn\u2019t have anything left to prove. That\u2019s a great situation for a veteran musician who\u2019s less concerned about navigating expectations and more interested in embracing his legacy and making a ruckus while he still can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mr. Mould worked slowly but surely on his \u201creturn to form\u201d for four years or so, beginning with the middle bits of 2009\u2019s <i>Life and Times<\/i> and climaxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,693,336],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-bob-mould","tag-merge-records"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bob Mould Beauty &amp; 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