Bob Mould
Patch The Sky
Merge Records
3/25/16
Sometimes the worst situations that arise in an artist’s life can help to create a some of their most defining work – Bob Mould joins that club in his most recent release for Merge Records.
Released as the third in what Mould describes as a “trilogy”, Patch the Sky follows 2014’s Beauty and Ruin and 2012’s solo comeback, Silver Age. What all three albums have in common is not in thematic elements, but rather in the blissful noise pop fans and followers of Bob’s work either in his solo work, or his time in Husker Du and Sugar.
The album begins with the slow-burn single Voices in my Head, a track that blurs the line between noise and folk, as Mould describes what happens when one sits alone with their thoughts, which for many can be the most frightening endeavor imaginable. “I decide to listen to the voices in my head/strange hallucinations I avoid/the people and the places/the living and the dead/how can I find some truth within the noise”, Mould opines.
If there’s an outlier on Patch The Sky, Voices is it, recalling Mould’s very first solo LP Workbook, but as the record continues the speed dials up and the noise pierces through any of the folk-twinged sound of the opening track.
Follow-up rager The End of Things describes an apocalyptic scenario between a couple, surviving as their world self-destructs and remembering all of what they did in the past. “We used to be so good together/where did everything go wrong/we had fancy seats in heaven/and a beautiful home downtown”.
The themes of Patch the Sky don’t see a whole lot of daylight from start to finish; staying mostly in the basement, but the heavy noisy sound remains, even during anthemic ballads such as Hold On.
You Say You best resembles a Sugar track from Bob’s past, keeping a melodic noise-pop feel despite the track’s themes of a relationship suffering from double talk and uncertainty. “You say you want it now, you/but you only want it now and then”, Mould seethes. The darkness continues on the album after the halfway mark, with the bouncy loud track Pray For Rain and slower cut Lucifer and God.
Daddy’s Favorite is a standout cut on the album, focusing on Mould’s struggles with his father regarding his upbringing and his own coming out in the 1990s, putting a strain on the family momentarily before patching things up thereafter. Mould lost his father fairly recently, and to cover that by eulogizing this moment in his past in one of the more distorted tracks on Patch The Sky is an honor.
Hands are Tied and Losing Time are the closest you’ll get to New Day Rising-era Husker Du tracks on Patch The Sky, clocking in at not even two minutes and showcasing Bob, Jason and Jon at their punk/thrash strengths. Black Confetti follows it, with a wall of noise that best resembles a combination of power pop and shoegaze as Bob’s vocals are buried deep beneath the noise.
Closer Monument wraps up the album by taking a cool-off lap and returning to the same pace as opener Voices in my Head as Mould gets very introspective about his own struggles with depression over the course of his life, building inner walls and the last few years of losses he’s experienced. “I try to be happy every day/but my black heart, it burns”.
For a closing chapter to this “trilogy” of Mould’s albums, Patch The Sky is just as strong if not a pinch stronger than 2012’s Silver Age by its own brutal honesty through the lyrics within the album. The songs aren’t as fast paced this time around, but the songs are just as catchy. Mould shows off that he’s not willing to go quietly from his place as one of guitar rock’s greatest players alongside excellent noodling by Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster’s manic but prepared drumming.
Three indie rock vets showing that age is more than just a number, it shows experience that pays off in loud, noisy, catchy dividends.
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