Bob Mould
Workbook

Just over a year after the dissolution of Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould debuts with "Workbook", a work, as is already evident from the title, that is more personal, if not intimate at least domestic. 

The opening "Sunspots" features a nice sequence of notes, but fails to convey to the listener that the album has truly begun. It's a piece that, in some parts, echoes the style of Steve Howe of Yes in his instrumentals. The piece should be considered, so to speak, as the opening theme. With "Wishing Well" the first genuine approach to the album is made, showcasing the Bob Mould kept in the closet for the sake of his punk band's prominence: cello instead of any keyboard, acoustics, and a good drum; an excellent melody and electric guitars that emerge only after four minutes (with almost six minutes left to go). "Heartbreak A Stranger" has a riff that resembles the note pattern of the first track. A polite song, with only a couple of accelerations (guitar-only and not aggressive) and good vocal harmonies, but too long (another nine minutes). "See A Little Light" is proof of how Bob is capable of creating non-trivial pop. The chorus is very similar to that old "Love Is All Around" revived in the nineties for the comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

"Poison Years"... Oh dear, don't shoot me if I say it, but it has a sound (even vocally, at times) that seems like "Night Boat" by Duran Duran. Sure, the Duran from the first album, the rock Duran, the new wave Duran, but still Duran! What a strange effect it gives... The piece flows well and sounds equally pleasant, but it even exceeds ten minutes! Poor listener (that is, me, used to the Cars): intro aside, of the first four songs, the shortest was six and a half minutes! An easy life doesn't seem to be on the horizon, as the following "Sinners And Their Repentances" is nothing but seven minutes of acoustic, cello, and voice. No easy listening? Okay, I'm more than fine with melodic quality and depth/seriousness of intent. But one piece, just one, three/four minutes at most? No, huh?

"Brasilia Crossed With Trenton", as the title suggests, doesn't break the pattern, quite the opposite. Acoustic guitars with a determined stride, the singing impatient to explode on the last syllable of each verse... Try replacing Bob's voice with Michael Stipe's in "Out Of Time"... Eleven minutes to dance like mad and jump like drunken monkeys, with the sun in your eyes. If it had been by R.E.M., it would have become an undisputed masterpiece. After this chaos, a little rest would be necessary. On a very "Out Of Time" organ (but very folk rock in general), "Compositions For The Young And Old" begins, finally easier, a little bit college and a tad Californian beach, but still over eight minutes long. While not the best, it's yet another example of Mould's compositional ease.

The truly pop piece arrives in "Lonely Afternoon". The piece still has a certain something (I know exactly what: focus especially on the backing vocals in the verses, and the ending) of "guitar-driven Duran Duran" and early days, of "too 80s" (we're in 1988), of eager - as a reaction to previous tracks - to be "finally mainstream", aside from the semi-acoustic arrangement. "Dreaming Am I" begins arpeggiated and rather dreamy, then turns into a suggestive bass-drum lope. Electric guitars solo and various finishes in a Cure style, less echoing but equally flat and sharp, never getting angry. With the final "Whichever Way The Wind Blows", the electric guitars reclaim what was theirs. The Hüsker Dü return in this gritty, industrial track, its wall of sound built with red brick factory walls from 1860. The "do you remember" fans will rejoice: the sky is once again leaden due to pollutants, the setting once again that of a salvage yard receiving disposed vehicles. Guitars delineated by a blue-collar Hendrix at General Motors; voids where Bob self-destructs. A final return to the pastoral, almost an apology to those who had already labeled "Workbook" as a folk rock album, with a final tinkling of cowbells hung around the neck of a herd.

A complex, daring and bold work, where Bob doesn't just dabble, but plunges headlong, as is his wont, both a virtue and a flaw. A plethora of tracks - not all of them highly inspired - and sounds too different from what once was, literally erase his name from the list of top American punksters, only to re-establish it atop the list titled "free and rock singer-songwriters," alongside other colleagues, with Lou Barlow and Paul Westerberg at the forefront. Free to accelerate and decelerate at will, to look forward and turn to the past. To betray expectations and to surprise.