Warehouse: Songs and Stories

This really grew on me and peaked in the end.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3, though if Grant Hart had chosen to end “You Can Live at Home” after 2:30 or so, I’d probably be willing to barely bump this album up to a 4.

This is a strange, strange project. It’s bloated like a motherfucker, for one. The first half of this album all feel like leftovers, which is weird to not exactly start on your best stuff. Out of the first 11 tracks, I only liked about 6 of them, and even of the 6 I liked, there are criticisms noted as a “little repetitive” (These Important Years), “the outro needed some more work” (Standing in the Rain), “vocals very nasally” (Back from Somewhere), “not a fan of the one-chord fakeout ending” (Ice Cold Ice), & “outro VERY repetitive” (Too Much Spice). No notes on “Friend, You’ve Got to Fall” though. This album really, really does not find an identity through its first 11 tracks, and while they’re all decent to listen to with a good energy to the instrumental every time, the lack of a more focused / thought-out structure (the lack of bridges on most of these tracks is astounding, as is the repetitive / long / overplayed outros & every track starting with guitar/drums) really makes the album feel like it’s going absolutely nowhere for the first half, in what I would categorize as a competent, yet unsatisfying 3.

For whatever reason though, the back half of the album (the last 9 tracks) suddenly find most of that; the structure to the tracks feels more thought out, the lyricism feels like it has more of a point, and the instrumentals kicks up in a way that just feels way more satisfying, turning the repetition into a positive as opposed to a sort of dry negative. Genuinely, if this album were just the last 9 tracks by themselves, I’d be at a 3.5 that I might be persuaded to bump up to a 4. I genuinely think either “Turn It Around” or “Up in the Air” would’ve made for great closing tracks, and if the album had ended there, I’d feel pretty satisfied with them.

“You Can Live at Home” is one of the worst closing tracks I’ve ever heard for any album in my life. It is the culmination of an album-long frustration that I had with one Grant Hart. His penmanship is fine, and his instrumental work on the tracks he’s not singing on is generally good. However, I fully believe he cannot sing worth a damn, even though his vocals occasionally work at points on this album under really specific soundscapes. Bob Mould might be a diet Michael Stipe, yes, but at least he sounds close enough at points that it’s easy to just vibe along with it, as if this really were an R.E.M. album, and I think his tracks are generally better structured throughout the album. Grant Hart is the opposite. Grant Hart sounds like a bad Elvis Costello impersonator with an even more nasally voice, like a Muppet parody, and even then, I think a Muppet parody could do a better job. My issue with “You Can Live at Home”, however, is not from his vocals; it’s the fact that the entire last 2:30 of the track goes absolutely fucking nowhere, and with the inaudible lyrics (seriously horrible mixing) themselves already seemingly acting as a subliminal diss to Mould, given their internal issues and the break-up of the band afterward, I find it to be nothing more than a fully petty 5:24 of boring inaudible nothingness, capping off an album that should’ve ended on his partner’s tracks.

It is singlehandedly dragging this album down to a 3, but make no mistake; this album isn’t that bad. The 20 tracks here all generally sound fine (save for the last one), and I’d say the very best ones are probably worthy of being a 4, if they had been able to pick them out and really flesh them out. The mediocre ones are what pull this down, especially that last one. Past that, the length of this album & the repetition of the intros / outros is too much to ignore. This was probably always going to get a 3 once the sort of “diet R.E.M. with a Green Day lean” thing came into my head, but at least it fought back during that second half to be a respectably good 3.5 that almost became a 4. Hell, it'd probably be a 4 if you cut out like, 80% of Grant Hart’s tracks. Ultimately, it’s just a 3 though, and it definitely didn’t need to be a double album.

Really wanted to like this more

Weird Dü album to put on here.

Having gone to college for the arts in New York City in the early 90s, I was surrounded by people curating the coolest music from every style. I was exposed to great punk, hip hop, jazz, blues and alternative rock. Of course, Hüsker Dü made it through the speakers, although this album was not in the rotation - the earlier stuff was much more alive and much more influential.

This album is their divorce album - the couple has already broken up but they are trying to show us kids how much they both still love us so we get excess: two Christmases, two Hanukkahs and two New Years. Twice as much stuff, when we’d rather have just half of it, but with things back to the way it used to be.

The album sounds like R.E.M. if Michael and Peter had a better drug dealer and went to jail more often than classes. It’s actually a good road trip album, you can put it on and let the energy of the music guide your drive. Not terrible, but definitely not their best.

I don't exactly know how to feel about this album. First off, it doesn't seem like it did too well on the charts. I liked some parts, but other parts just sounded like random noise

Why is this so thin and weird sounding? I had to check that my EQ wasn't messed up. I totally get the REM comparisons. I hate when you get albums like this that you know are going to get a pretty low rating after the first two songs but you still have an hour left. Part of the problem with this album is that I think the music would actually be decent if it wasn't for the terrible, terrible production. I mean at some point a lot of people heard this mix and said 'yeah that's how we want this to sound' which is sort of baffling. It's not like the late 80s had some kind of trend where everything sounded like it was recorded in an Altoids tin so I'm curious about that decision. The unfortunate production makes this basically unlistenable. And a double album with the same two or three songs playing over and over makes it that much worse. 2/5

Jo Paperi-T sen tiesi: hyvä popahtava alt-rock levy! 4/5

I see there are a few Husker Du fans already asking in their reviews why this album was picked for the list. I agree. I feel it is their worst by a fair bit. The album title is appropriate. The songs are workman liked compared to their best, like the stuff they kept in reserve and now that the writing was on the wall for the group they stuck them out together in a closing down sale. If the editors want to represent their melodic era any of the three previous albums are a better choice but I also think they match any of the hardcore punk album on the list on their early stuff.

One of the weaker Hüsker Dü albums, but that says more about their great catalogue of music. It's a bit long and the songs are a bit middling at times, but it's like a final playlist. The last thing they made before they split up and there's 20 songs to enjoy. I like this band a lot and while I find this a strange inclusion, I still really really enjoy listening to it.

The Good: We not only get songs…
The Bad: Most of the stories are the same…
The Ugly: Trying to find the double dots on the keyboard…

Yes, I was familiar with Husker Du (with the double dots… sue me) prior to this list starting. No, I had not listened to many of their albums… none to be exact.
So, after listening, and then reading, I guess I am Du for some additional album listens.

Did I like this album? Yes.
Will I likely listen to the album again? Not in its entirety. At least, not soon. Mostly because the damn thing is repetitive in sound.
Sound is energetic though… maybe another spin prior to the end of the year is called for…

3 1/2* upgraded!

All songs sound pretty much the same. Not bad per se, but it's getting a bit boring after a while

Sounds like a bunch of yanks trying to play The Jam ... badly.

Overly long, would have worked better if it was culled to a single album.

The Singer sounds like a zesty Ozzy Osbourne.

20 tracks and 69 minutes (nice) all sound the same. Why is this album so long? Why does it sound so bad? What *Exactly* justifies it's placement in this list?

This is a car CD for sure. You can definitely tell the sound where Bob Mould would eventually take Sugar forming here. It’s just a little too long and doesn’t necessarily stick with me. There are definitely highlights though. Favorite songs were Standing In The Rain, Ice Cold Ice, Actual Condition, and Turn It Around.

'Expectations only mean / You really think you know / What's coming next, and you don't.' Every punk-indie band's favorite outfit, Hüsker Dü doesn't only foreshadow, they alchemize. Just by being who they are, they verify that punk can be poetic, that indie can be hardcore, that what we call alt-rock doesn't exist w/o the whole CBGB thing. That alchemy, the coinage of indie out of hardcore punk, can be illustrated: 'Familiar places that we turn into gardens.' At times, you'd be sure Michael Stipe was the lead vocalist, but Bob Mould isn't to be confused w/ anyone else. The lyrics are hardly obscure, the music is fast but melodic, the vision is to embolden: 'There's nothing wrong w/ having aspirations / Nothing wrong w/ walking tall.'

Not a bad album, but a lot of it sounds the same with nothing standing out. Reminds me of R.E.M. quite a bit. 3/5

Punk zegt wiki. Dus ik maak mijn borst weer nat. Gaan we weer. Maar...dit valt wel mee. Zou dit geen punk noemen. Het is vrij radiovriendelijk. Dit schrijf ik wel in 2025. En de schijf komt uit 1987. En eerlijk is eerlijk: nummers als Could you be the one, hoorde ik toen nog niet op de radio. Dat kwam pas in de jaren '90. Een voorloper wellicht.

Mijn smaak is het niet. En dan wordt een dubbel-lp toch snel te lang. Ben het wel zat halverwege, het wordt me te eentonig. Toch wil ik het geen onvoldoende geven. Kan me wel voorstellen dat dit andere vrolijker maakt.

I have lots of Husker Du, but not this one - the sound seemed closer to Wig than the others, which I like! 3/5 #musicsky #albumsky #musicchallenge

Production quality is inconsistently ass. Thought my ear buds were dying at first but no, the album just sounds bad