5th Jan - Hüsker Dü's Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Artist – Album: Hüsker Dü – Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Released:  5^th January 1987

Sounds Like: The American indie rock template

Hüsker Dü's evolution from hardcore punks to alternative rockers may have alienated much of their early fanbase, but their new sound mesmerized some of the most important players in that burgeoning scene. Name checked by both Nirvana and the Pixies, they stand next to the Replacements and R.E.M as the most influential American band of the Eighties.

Warehouse: Songs and Stories itself is a doozy, 20 slices consistently brilliant slices of alternative rock perfection. It’s a double album that doesn’t outstay its welcome, and although fans complained about over-production on their second major label effort, it doesn’t sound like a mess of studio techniques and sounds effects. What it does sound like, though, is their final album, the sound of a group being torn in two directions by principal songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart. The track listing almost exactly follows a one Mould, one Hart pattern and it’s difficult to interpret a song like Friend, You’ve Got to Fall as anything other than a warning from Mould to his creative partner.

The emphasis on melody, call and response (Ice Cold Ice), power pop riots (Could You Be the One?), and pounding percussion (Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope) were all relatively new to rock music but became important elements of the sounds that began to infiltrate the mainstream over the next few decades. Thankfully, the double album and the eye stinging artwork were a couple of elements that didn’t quite catch on.

Albumaday... rating:   8/10

1.       These Important Years – 3:49

2.       Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope – 3:11

3.       Standing in the Rain – 3:41

4.       Back from Somewhere – 2:16

5.       Ice Cold Ice – 4:23

6.       You’re a Soldier – 3:03

7.       Could You Be the One? – 2:32

8.       Too Much Spice – 2:57

9.       Friend, You’ve Got to Fall – 3:20

10.   Visionary – 2:30

11.   She Floated Away – 3:32

12.   Bed of Nails – 4:44

13.   Tell You Why Tomorrow – 2:42

14.   It’s Not Peculiar – 4:06

15.   Actual Condition – 1:50

16.   No Reservations – 3:40

17.   Turn It Around – 4:32

18.   She’s a Woman (And Now He Is a Man) – 3:19

19.   Up in the Air – 3:03

20.   You Can Live at Home – 5:25

Listen to ‘Could You Be The One?’’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMe15tWC6gc

Also released on the 5^th January:

1976: Bob Dylan - Desire

Also released on the 5^th January:

1990: They Might Be Giants - Flood