Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs and Stories

When I was in my early twenties I was a little heartbroken and took my revenge against the world by being a huge Husker Du fan. Their final album "Warehouse: Songs and Stories" was where it all began for me. Their fuzz-driven melancholy which merged melodic punk, psychedelia and electric folk was an inspiration and "Warehouse" was where the mix fell in the right place (although diehard fans will claim either "Zen Arcade" or "New Day Rising" as their finest hour). Mould’s songs here are nothing short of brilliant especially “Ice Cold Ice”, “It’s Not Peculiar”, “Up in the Air” and “No Reservations”. Hart also pens some great moments with “She’s a Woman (And Now He’s a Man)”, “She Floated Away” and the killer finale “You Can Live at Home”. It is hardly noticeable that Hart and Mould were falling apart by then (although they might be addressing one another in some of the lyrics) as the interplay between the two excels any of the Huskers previous efforts. Hart’s back up harmonies in “Ice Cold Ice” are mesmerizing as is Mould’s guitar solo in “She’s a Woman” and these are just two examples on why they could never be quite as good once they went solo.
The lyrics are not quite as stunning as the songs but, man, did I buy into all those bleak images of heartbreak, loneliness and suicide. Stuff like “Taking all of this is taking all of me/ Sometimes I wished I had the energy/ When it falls apart like fragments of our lives/ Give a bit to live and give a lot to die” or “Pass away the hours/ Hear the footsteps of the past/ Walking up the stairs of time/ Knowing that I’m trapped” used to make my day then.
I laughed when Nirvana went big with “Nevermind”. Their stuff was similar to the Huskers but they were more successful because they had a much cleaner production. And because Kurt Cobain was better looking than Bob Mould. And he married Courtney Love whereas Mould was a reclusive gay (something I learned about later). And Kurt committed suicide whereas Mould went to become a scriptwriter for the World Championship Wrestling...