Bob Mould
Modulate

Just like with everything new that captures his interest, Bob Mould didn't cautiously "venture into" technology; instead, he dove in headfirst, quite literally. This gave birth to a sort of second artistic life, which didn't just accompany but overlapped and supplanted his rocker life for an entire decade. Mould became a respected rock DJ, a radio speaker, and he engaged in various remixes of other artists, both rock and dance... Stuff that would give convulsions to the historic fans of Husker Du... Everything Bob Mould became after 2000, he is today, despite the reconciliation with rock in the "Body Of Song" album from 2005. Inevitably, one would assume, technology, sound engineering, mastery in recording, the taste for production-reproduction-overproduction are and will be leitmotifs of today's Mould and what he inevitably will be, album after album, but especially remix after remix.

The opening "180 Rain" has good ideas, but Bob's voice is too filtered through vocoders. Bob is openly gay, that's agreed, but what is the need to sound like Cher? I can see the Husker Du fans collapsing to the ground, one after the other... "Sunset Safety Glass" is good, with traces of traditional instruments, especially drums and bass, but there's too much keyboard chaos. "Semper Fi" is the technological evolution of melodic punk-pop so beautifully made by Bob during his solo career. Here, however, the voice doesn't stand out (the voice! The part historically most cared for in his records!), and there's still too much overcrowding of keyboards. For the series "what happens when you try to turn something into something it's not."

"Homecoming Parade" is an instrumental that would suit Paul Chain and "Opera Decima." Techno pop for "Lost Zoloft"; more classic, almost eighties style... Water plays and bells for "Without" less than two minutes of new age: how many beautiful sounds our Bob has learned in these years!

If for every failed album there is always the track that saves you from defeat (a sort of musical version of the consolation goal), well, in this CD the track in question is "SlaySway," 'non-invasive' melody and big guitars. The technology is present but rightly remains 'under,' just like it will be for the convincing and guitar-driven "Body Of Song" from 2005. But here, unfortunately, we are three years earlier, and "SlaySway" is just a (lucky) incident... The craving for guitars continues in the less beautiful "The Receipt," where he attacks someone, according to many Grant Hart: a signal of how irreparably, irremediably, with the music and with life, Mould is distant, in 2002, from the best he produced, and from what he will be remembered for forever.

Only "cute" "Quasar" and the classic and quiet "Soundonsound"; "Homery" is still noise without a reason, from which "Comeonstrong" arises, another 'treated' melodic punk. The final "Trade" returns primacy to technology, in an album that, at the end, has a bit too many guitars to be a true "dance" work (or whatever it's called). The episode in question, perhaps because of the linearity of the melodies, is probably the most successful among the synthetic ones.

Let it be clear: this is an album with several commendable hints, although not developed properly. The attempt to mix his punk, melodic and not, with club sounds certainly has style, but it is likely that a bit more truzzo-dance taste and sampling would have resulted far more effectively... Here, in fact, the sound does not captivate, does not transport, doesn't make you tap your feet, doesn’t even aid contemplation... It is a mediocre work, because mediocre was its creator, content with this result here. An album that almost wiped out the listeners who were once fans of Husker Du; an album that gifted fans of solo Mould and Sugar a beautiful and gigantic question mark; an album, finally, that did not permit its author to expand his "market share" to new audiences. But Bob, more determined and stubborn than ever, cashes in (also cashed 20 euros from me for this CD) and moves on...

The only difference, the awareness that 'Bob Mould' is not just a name, but a brand, to be used for rocker works. And that if he wants to continue, venture into the disco jungle, he better find a new identity. And what better than an acronym? And so LoudBomb!