A bit of a forgotten gem. If you
love the likes of the The Pixies, Nirvana and Sonic Youth it's time you went
back and rediscovered Sugar.
Back in the good ol' days (that's
1992) when NME was actually read by more than 5 people COPPER BLUE was voted
their album of that year, pipping the likes of R.E.M., Spiritualized, The
Lemonheads and Nick Cave to the top spot.
COPPER BLUE was the first album
by Sugar, the new outfit from Husker Du's Bob Mould. After Husker Du split
acrimoniously Bob took himself off to the middle of nowhere and recorded the
first of two solo albums, Workbook. It couldn't have been more different from
Husker Du. No punk rock guitar, Workbook was almost entirely acoustic and
focused on simple beautiful melodies rather than abrasive rock. It's a bit
patchy but worth checking out for the tracks 'Wishing Well' and 'Sunspots'.
It's worth mentioning here because COPPER BLUE released a couple of years later
is almost like the perfect combination of Husker Du punk-rock and Workbook's
melodious songwriting.
On COPPER BLUE the guitars are
still fuzzed up, but have been slowed right down an underneath there are
simple, terrific, tightly-constructed pop songs. In a way it's a bit like
Nirvana's Nevermind (Incidentally NMEs album for 1991); pop music masquerading
as alternative punk rock.
'If I Can't Change Your Mind' is
the sort of joyous song that McFly or Busted could have made a massive
acoustic-led hit if they'd ever covered it. And I mean that in a good way. It's
a perfect 10 out of 10 pop song and still one of my all time favourites. 'A
Good Idea' sounds like classic poppy Pixies. Tracks like 'The Act We Act',
'Changes', 'Helpless' are vintage early-nineties american alt-rock; they're not
grunge, there's too much treble and too little sludgy bass.
Mould's voice might be
off-putting for some. He's not a strong vocalist so the vocals are heavily
layered to compete against the layers of reverberating guitars. It's probably
part of the reason that he never really crossed over into the mainstream. You
can imagine if Bob Mould had a voice like Cobain, Vedder or Lanegan, Sugar
would have been massive.
Twenty years after COPPER BLUE
was first put out it's just had a spanking great re-release and been lovingly
re-mastered with their other albums Beaster and File Under Easy Listening. If
you missed it the first time now’s your chance.
'IF I CAN'T CHANGE YOUR MIND'
'THE ACT WE ACT'
'A GOOD IDEA'
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