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<\/p>\nListening to Bob Mould\u2019s music \u2013 his more than a dozen solo albums, his releases leading Sugar in the \u201990s, and especially the run of six albums he made with H\u00fcsker D\u00fc in the mid-1980s \u2013 and you\u2019re likely to come away with the impression that he\u2019s a pretty intense guy. And while that\u2019s not an inaccurate assumption, it takes into consideration only part of the picture. Mould is a thoughtful, incisive lyricist whose songs can address big themes. At his best, Mould has it both ways, and that\u2019s the case with Blue Hearts<\/i>, his latest album.<\/p>\n
Blue Hearts<\/i> is a collection of topical songs, and the individual titles telegraph that with furious energy: \u201cAmerican Crisis,\u201d \u201cForecast of Rain,\u201d \u201cRacing to the End.\u201d Against a roaring musical backdrop \u2013 courtesy of his guitar plus his longtime rhythm section of bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster \u2013 Mould tackles subjects that are at once personal and universal.<\/p>\n
Mould has been in the game long enough to develop working methods that make the most of his many strengths. While he may collect ideas for songs while he\u2019s on tour, it\u2019s only when he comes off the road that the real work of songwriting commences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I unpack the suitcase and put all the tour clothes away and go back to normal life,\u201d Mould says, \u201cthat’s when the next cycle begins.\u201d One of the first things he does is gather all of his loose musical ideas and thoughts jotted down on \u201cPost-Its, backs of napkins and whatever,\u201d he says. \u201cI put that all in front of me, and I start to observe what I’ve been thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
More often than not, those thoughts start to coalesce around some central ideas. \u201cAnd when those themes present themselves, that\u2019s when the writing for an album usually begins,\u201d he says. And Mould\u2019s approach is more organized than one might expect of such a creative individual. \u201cOnce I have maybe ten songs, I\u2019ll sequence those as if they\u2019re an album. I\u2019ve got something slated as an opener, and something as the end of Side One,\u201d says Mould, who at age 60, grew up in the era of the vinyl LP.<\/p>\n
And he favors quality over quantity, taking aim at the idea that just because a CD can hold 80 minutes of audio, artists should fill all of the available space. He believes that kind of thinking \u201ccontributed greatly to the whole Napster mentality: people were being asked to pay $16 for one song plus 70 minutes of filler.\u201d In stark contrast to that approach, Blue Hearts<\/i> clocks in at under 36 minutes, with no filler. The 14 tracks on Blue Hearts<\/i> are a tidy set of tunes: only one song (\u201cThe Ocean\u201d) breaks the three-minute mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was definitely going for brevity all the way around on this record,\u201d Mould says, noting that his guiding philosophy for Blue Hearts<\/i> was \u201cjust get in, say what you’ve got to say, and get out; don’t color it up too much with fancy bridges or elaborate intros and outros.\u201d Put even more simply, he says, \u201cYeah, I was just trying to write two-minute punk rock songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sequencing 14 of those songs in an order that flows equals an album. \u201cBeing born in 1960 and growing up on Rubber Soul<\/i> and Revolver<\/i>, that’s how I learned what an album was,\u201d Mould says. \u201cI still believe that [the album] format is the proper one for this specific discipline of music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mould really does design his albums to be listened to start-to-finish. \u201cBlue Hearts<\/i> starts with a mission statement,\u201d he says. After addressing wildfires, climate change and general disillusionment, opener \u201cHeart on My Sleeve\u201d concludes with these lines: \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to war \/ and we\u2019re going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
That plaintive acoustic song \u201csets a pretty dire stage for what\u2019s to come,\u201d Mould acknowledges. But it all scans, and it all fits together as a cohesive whole. He notes that \u201cthe second to last song on the record, \u2018Password to My Soul\u2019 was constructed as a way to reiterate everything that had been said prior.\u201d And then Mould closes Blue Hearts<\/i> with \u201cThe Ocean.\u201d That song, he notes, \u201cis another acoustic-ish song in the same key as the first song.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while \u201cThe Ocean\u201d does open with acoustic guitar textures, by mid-song it turns into a squalling wall of sustained guitar distortion. \u201cThat whole symphony of feedback was strictly for my own pleasure,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIf anybody else likes it, that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are times when the aural blast of Blue Hearts<\/i>\u2019 more energetic songs makes the lyrics hard to discern, at least on first listen. \u201cI don’t think I’m trying to get people to have to work harder,\u201d Mould says, noting that he includes a lyric sheet with the album. \u201cBut I think the vocal for a song like \u2018Fireball\u2019 sits where it should, relative to the energy of the instrumentation.\u201d Mould says that while the thoughts contained in that song\u2019s lyrics are important, the music gets the message across as well. \u201cI want the heat of the guitars and the cymbals to make the point,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s plenty of nuance amid the album\u2019s howling electric instrumental onslaught. The string arrangements featuring the Prague TV Orchestra are as finely wrought as have ever been heard on a Bob Mould record.<\/p>\n
As the title of the record\u2019s opener makes plain, with the songs on Blue Hearts<\/i>, he is writing with his heart on his sleeve. And Mould is aware of the dangers of that approach. \u201cIf I write something that\u2019s too personal,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019ll give it some time. I\u2019ll think it over. The really \u2018interior\u2019 songs, I usually sit with them for a while to make sure they’re okay; I\u2019ll think about all of the fallout that might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But like any good artist, he breaks his own rules. \u201c\u2019Leather Dreams\u2019 is a perfect example of \u2018no filter,\u2019\u201d Mould says with a chuckle. \u201cSo sometimes they slip through.\u201d Yet in general, he makes a point of leaving key pieces of the narrative out of a song, allowing the listener to fill those bits in themselves, making the song personal for them. In a way, he suggests, \u201cit’s not about the words of the song, but the song at that moment in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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