Bob Mould
Body Of Sound
(Yep Roc)

This guy has -what- four, five albums now that can be classified as "classics"? Each one more confident than the last, each one a step towards whatever it is he's looking for. Not bad considering that the first of these classics albums opens with a track that finds our boy yelling ".new day RISING, new day RISING, new day RISING." for one and a half glorious minutes.
For long time fans of Mould, just the sound of his voice (a rough tenor, sometimes torn and frayed, other times molten) sends shivers; his signature guitar sound (notes/chords crammed up with a high-end distortion) is just as reassuring. It's an amazing thing to find comfort in one of the angriest voices of your generation.

Nor have his writing techniques haven't changed. "Circles", "Best Thing", "Missing You"-could've been outtakes from a later Husker Du record; they possess that same pushing spirit, the same battle that pits overdriven guitar vs. well-planned harmonies. It's the approach to his songwriting, however, that has changed the most. The opening track "Always Tomorrow" begins with electric piano and a sketching guitar lead make the foundation that the rhythm section finishes. Mould has worked slowly on not hitting you right off the bat with each song. "Always Tomorrow" is gentle for a while, then builds with a catchy riff and a few traces of atmospheric sounds in the back. Although the anger that's been the subtext to almost everything he does is there, nowadays it seems that Mould has his hands on the reins.

It's not all gold, of course. "Days Of Rain", for example, gets a little too close to some lost Alan Parson's Project song and "High Fidelity" could be totally written off as a complete throwaway if it weren't for the interesting organ and chimes section in the middle. But that's it really. The rest of the songs are interesting and point to the obvious: Bob Mould is still a bottomless pit of ideas.

As for the other musicians on the record, it's Fugazi's Brendan Canty that adds that extra spark to the proceedings as he drives some of these songs ("Underneath Days" especially) like no other drummer Mould has played with. The other unexpected fixture here is the programming that he throws in. After the complaining that followed his last record, Modulate (2002), some would hope that he'd be over computers. While Body Of Sound is definitely more of a Rock record, the atmospheric effects are still there, flapping in the wind behind the main part of the music. After a handful of repeated listens, these songs may not be as interesting without them, methinks.

It's a time-honored cliché at this point to describe any current release by an artist who has been around for a while as "mature", but Mould has always seemed more mature than his peers, even when fronting an amphetamine soaked punk band as a young adult. This latest is yet another in what has been a long line of solid records. – Andrew Lau