[Review] Bob Mould: Black Sheets of Rain (1990)

A darker, heavier album from the former Husker Dü frontman.

Kronomyth 2.0: When the sheets hit the fans.

Bob Mould the nasal-voiced noisemonger is back, in case you were worried after Workbook that he’d gone soft. I was never a Husker Dü fan and the same goes for Bob Mould/Sugar. “Gee Angel,” well, I could listen to that a million times (I’m probably halfway there already), but that’s the exception. Most of the time, it’s a lot of mumbling and a wall of noise with the same tension-release between verse and chorus. Maybe that’s your cup of tea, in which case there’s a bathtub of the stuff on Black Sheets of Rain. There are people, God bless them, who really enjoy this record; people who, I assume, have listened to this album dozens of times and pored over the lyrics sheet. For them, the wordy and workmanlike façade of Black Sheets of Rain has been stripped away, revealing the beauty and truth underneath. The rest of us will just have to slough through eleven songs of discord, discourse and distortion. Tony Maimone and Anton Fier return to their roles in Husker Dü Mark II, but they seem stuck in the same gear, track after track. There are a few songs here that I’m pretty sure would eventually get under my skin: It’s Too Late, The Last Night, Out of Your Life. And the closing track, screamed out by Mould like a man on fire, is electrifying. But most of this music reminds me of why I tuned out during the early 90s; it was a lot of people playing bar chords with distortion pedals and whining about their problems. Whatever happened to plug-in love?

Original elpee version

A1. Black Sheets of Rain (7:47)
A2. Stand Guard (5:30)
A3. It’s Too Late (4:02)
A4. One Good Reason (6:20)
A5. Stop Your Crying (4:30)
B1. Hanging Tree (5:47)
B2. The Last Night (3:59)
B3. Hear Me Calling (4:56)
B4. Out of Your Life (3:30)
B5. Disappointed (4:08)
B6. Sacrifice – Let There Be Peace (5:34)

All songs written by Bob Mould.

The Players

Bob Mould (guitar, vocals), Anton Fier (drums), Tony Maimone (bass, backing vocals). Produced by Bob Mould.

The Plastic

Released on elpee, compact disc and cassette in May 1990 in the US (Virgin, 2-91395/-4) and the UK (Virgin America, VUSLP/CDVUS/VUSMC-21). Reached #123 on the US charts.

1. Re-issued on 180g vinyl elpee in 2015 in the UK (Demon, DEMREC112) and on 25^th anniversary compact disc in the UK (Edsel, ESDA5046).