'Here We Go Crazy' by Bob Mould
'Here We Go Crazy' by Bob Mould
In 2020, Bob Mould released his 14th solo album, Blue Hearts. He also, with the mammoth boxset Distortion, gave an overview of the rest of his solo career up until then, including his electronic projects and his fronting of the alt-rock band Sugar.
In 2025—a mere 37 years after he left Hüsker Dü, the punk- and alt-rock band that influenced and inspired, among others, Nirvana and Green Day—Mould reaffirms his late-career potency with his 15th solo album, Here We Go Crazy. He also, with a cup dipped into a particular rock ‘n’ roll fountain, refills his reserves of vigor.
The fountain is more about youthfulness than youth: Mould has long since refined his blistering, whirling knife attacks of the 1980s into carefully aimed sweeps and thrusts of his darkly glinting voice and his honed, gleaming six-string chords. He remains passionate, both because of and despite the lessons of age.
He does his younger self credit with “Neanderthal,” which lunges after familiar punk speed and power; sinks a crunchily sweet pop-rock hook into the flesh of “When Your Heart Is Broken,” then yanks it back until it draws blood; and strums acoustic chords as if their vibrations will shine more light into the shadowy introspection of “Lost or Stolen.”
Mould sticks with bandmates he can trust: bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster locked in as his go-to rhythm section with 2012’s Silver Age, and they are practically empaths while discerning when to be steady timekeepers, as on the midtempo title track, and when to goad his aggression, as on the hard-driving “Fur Mink Augurs.”
As guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Mould is as steady and intelligent as Richard Thompson, and he concludes Here We Go Crazy with “Your Side,” alternately a pensive consideration of aging and an explosive renewal of vows. He refuses to give up on real love and noisy music. Here he goes hard.
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Get Here We Go Crazy at Amazon here.
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