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New
Day Rising was one of the three records made by Husker
Du while they were signed to SST. Each of the three
during their time on the label showed the Huskers at
different stages during their musical evolution, this
one being their popiest, and therefore most accessible
album. It was also their most experimental to date,
with some tracks including acoustic guitar and piano
parts.
The
title track opens the album with a pulsing beat laid
down by Grant Hart, with Bob Mould coming in bellowing
at the top of his lungs over his trademark fuzz guitar
attack. After a minute or two of abrasive noise, the
album moves on to "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill",
an extremely melodic and catchy piece written by Hart
with an excellent guitar solo. The next few tracks are
all noteworthy, but nothing to go crazy about. "Celebrated
Summer" is the next highlight; another catchy song
with a slow acoustic guitar part that Mould injects
with emotionally and powerfully sung lyrics.
Listeners
will be immediately drawn into "Terms of Psychic
Warfare", which opens with a great Greg Norton
bass line. That track happens to be one of my personal
favorites because of the catchy refrain, which always
brings me back for another listen. The same can be said
about "59 Times the Pain", in which Mould
sings with such a tortured and torn voice that you can
feel the emotion seething from the CD.
The
album finishes up with a revisit to the Husker's previous
days. "How to Skin a Cat" is pretty heavy,
and has incredibly twisted lyrics. The last song, "The
Plans I Make" verges on the edge of being flat-out
thrash. It ends in a finale of screeching feedback with
all the members working into one huge, noisy, sloppy
instrumental frenzy.
New
Day Rising is a great album. Some of the tracks you
may find yourself skipping, but the other better ones
more than make up the lackluster few. If you're looking
for an introduction to the band, pick up this album.
It's easily the most listenable, at least from their
SST days, and it samples a little bit of everything
from their repertoire to give the listener a better
idea of what Husker Du is all about.
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