The only thing, it seems, that ever reliably pierced the twined armor of Bob Mould’s squalling guitar and emotionally serrated singing style was the former Husker Du frontman’s penchant for revelatory hooks. Same here.
“I Don’t Know You Anymore” is, at least on its bristling surface, a gut punch of a song, all angry recriminations and hurt feelings. But then, as Mould dashes into the chorus — here, alongside Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster — he’s all of the sudden hanging ten on the surging wave of sun-flecked pop goodness.
Not for long, of course. As with Husker (and Mould’s subsequent band Sugar), there are several layers to “I Don’t Know You Anymore,” each of them seemingly at odds with the other. And that’s the power and glory of this track, which serves as another tangy advance taste from the apparently perfectly named forthcoming Beauty and Ruin. On one level, Mould is swinging wildly, even as he goes down — but on the other, there’s a perfect majesty to the song’s construction that couldn’t be further away from a bloody-knuckled round house.
In other words, it’s classic Bob Mould. Beauty and Ruin, his follow up to 2012’s Silver Age, is due via Merge Records on June 3, 2014 in North America and on June 9 in Europe and the UK.
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Rock + Pop): Death Cab for Cutie, Joe Jackson, Toto + Others - January 18, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Blues, Jazz + R&B): Boz Scaggs, Gavin Harrison, Alabama Shakes - January 10, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Reissues + Live): John Oates, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Faces + others - January 7, 2016
