There’s an episode of The Simpsons that, bizarrely, brings Bob Mould to mind. It’s the one where Homer, in an attempt to get some recognition and glory, winds up on the Space Shuttle. All aboard nearly die due to his bumbling, but at the last moment, he jams an inanimate carbon rod into an open hatch door, saving all from being sucked out into space. When he gets back home, who gets the adoration, praise and parade? The rod, that’s who (or what.)

Okay, so I’m stretching the parallel to the thinnest degree here, but consider this: Bob Mould left iconic punk band Hüsker Dü and created one of the finest albums of the 1980s, his solo debut Workbook. Critics nearly broke their collective ankles falling over it, and as well they should. Even with Mould’s rather square-jawed vocal delivery, the pop pops, the emotions are real and the instrumentation is spot-on. That Mould could graduate from the awesome fury that was Hüsker Dü to this was a feat.

Not everyone thought that way, though, certainly not a lot of the diehard Hüsker fans hoping the band would crap out on their Warner Bros. entries and slink back to SST Records with new, angry fire. What should have been more than a notable entry in the catalog of 1989’s releases rather remains that way to this day. I do recall an insurance company picking up the once top-ten modern rock track “See a Little Light” for use in an ad campaign, a move that usually fills me with a sense of disgust and indignation, yet I was actually pleasantly surprised. Someone other than me knows this song, I thought… Well, put one up in the plus column. But like I said before, the whole album is one plus after another. (more…)