At this point, Bob Mould has released more studio albums under his own name than with Hüsker Dü and Sugar combined, and it’ll be no affront to his legacy if he goes down in history as a solo artist. In fact, his last three records—2012’s Silver Age, 2014’s Beauty & Ruin and now this one—may represent the most impressive hot streak in his storied career. All three of them shine like Copper Blue. Will this stuff outpace your nostalgia for the songs he wrote when you were younger and he was younger? It will if you let it.
The secret to Mould’s resurgence, surely, is his energy. The best songs on Patch The Sky are loud, speedy and tight. That’s most of them. The guitars on opener “Voices In My Head,” the lead single, rattle in the foreground and boom in the back, a lovely, complicated sound. Track two, “The End Of Things,” meanwhile, is a simple, shout-along rock anthem with a catchy chorus.
By the time you’re midway through, at the roaring “Lucifer And God,” you’re picking up on the relentless fury of the music, the heaviness of the song titles, the creeping gloom of the lyrics. “Was it a total waste/Or was it all the rage,” he demands on “Hands Are Tied,” sounding wounded and ferocious at the same time. Mould’s in a dark place right now: bile in his gut, pain in his heart, doom on his mind. It’s the end of days, people. He makes it sound so fun.
—Patrick Rapa
