Published on Jun 9, 1998
Note to the reader: The opinions of the writers on this site
belong strictly to the writers. While a few discrepancies may erupt
between the writers, there is a mutual respect of each writer’s
opinion on this site.
On that note… Dear Bob-Why the hell did you give
Copper Blue a C+ last year?! Arguably,
Copper Blue was one of the pop gems of the 1990s. It showed
Bob Mould totally rejuvinated. He had a very capable band to back
up his power, a band talented enough to give Mould’s old band,
Husker Du, a run for their money.
Now, much of Mr. Pierce’s criticism of Sugar’s
Copper Blue album is quite evident on their next album,
File Under: Easy Listening. Maybe Mr. Pierce may have
listened to this album instead. I mean, it’s an easy error to do.
Most Sugar albums look the same from the side, same font, same
packaging, everything.
Unfortunately, Sugar will forever have a C+ batting average on
this site.
File Under: Easy Listening is a good display of Mould’s pop
talent, but it is a stifling record to listen to. Where Mould and
his band went wrong is anyone’s guess. It turned out that
File Under: Easy Listening was the last full-studio release
by Sugar. Its overwhelming “average” feel crushes any expectation
of the talent this band truely possessed.
It’s no surprise that Sugar only lasted two albums. Mould was
never an artist to stay in place. But Sugar gave Mould something
that he genuinely needed:an edgy counterpart. Mould may have hated
Grant Hart in Husker Du, but dammit, he needed him to make the band
one of the best alternative/college bands in the 1980s. Mould got
this counterpart with David Barbe in Sugar. His brief, tight bass
burst matched perfectly with Mould’s traditional buzzsaw guitar
attack.
Sadly, by the time
File Under: Easy Listening came out, it sounded like Mould
wanted things to sound his way, not letting Barbe and drummer
Malcom Travis have their say. It’s sort of like what happened to
the Smashing Pumpkins during their
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness recording sessions
when Corgan basically threw his hands up and the band members and
said, “Fuck it! If you can’t play the instrument the way I want you
to, I’ll play the damn thing myself!”
Mould didn’t go that far, but most of the songs on
File Under: Easy Listening sound so pedestrian. Mould’s
lyrics can still feel like you dived into a thorn bush, but the
music just isn’t as towering as it was on
Copper Blue. A few exceptions are noted in
File Under: Easy Listening. The longing, bobbing sound of
“What You Want It To Be” and the great guitar work on “I Can’t Help
You Anymore” still make this album a better buy than most of the
wannabe alternative shit out there today.
Mould even gets happy on “Gee Angel” and “Granny Cool”. But that
happiness must not have come from being in the band. A nice irony,
“Explode And Make Up”, closes
File Under: Easy Listening. Which is excaactly what the band
did, except for the “make up” part.
Mould has released a self-titled solo album since Sugar broke
up. It was panned by critics, but at least he was trying to
establish a new sound. With
File Under: Easy Listening, Mould sounded like he was
treading water. It is no wonder I saw
File Under: Easy Listening in the discount bins at the local
record store. Not that you can’t get a good album in those bins,
but
File Under: Easy Listening sounds like the generic brand of
Copper Blue. Hopefully, Mould will get another chance to
match that album’s brilliance in the next decade.