Hüsker Dü - Disc of the day

Hüsker Dü
Everything Falls Apart

(Reflex, 1982/Rhino, 1993)

Minneapolis hardcore trio barge into melody.

If you follow the line that Hüsker Dü’s “songcraft” only really came together on their iconoclastic 1984 double-vinyl concept splurge, Zen Arcade – there’s a good chance that Everything Falls Apart has passed you by, consigned, along with the recordings of Minor Threat, Negative Approach and The Angry Samoans to that small window in a summer’s afternoon when you take a constitutional and wonder whether, hmm, maybe you should investigate US hardcore. Recorded with SST house producer Spot in the summer of 1982 this first studio album from the Bob Mould, Grant Hart and Greg Norton combo sees hardcore’s consolers of the lonely at their most brutal – fast, furious and foul-mouthed - yet with their fine ear for sustained melody already present, hovering above the album’s pummelling rhythms like a cloud of steam-sweat over a bloody street-fight. So, from From The Gut’s military guitar’n’drums offensive to raw-throated screams behind the sheet-metal blitzkrieg of Gravity the joy of EFA becomes one of concealment and disclosure, immersing yourself in the album’s ferocious world but always looking out for that little glimpse of lilac under those rough work-shirt exteriors.

Andrew Male

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 03/04/2008