Customer Reviews

Besides

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like most b-sides collections, Besides is not for those just diving into the vast, brilliant career of Bob Mould. To get a bit more specific, if I could own only one Sugar recording, it would be Copper Blue. Of course, most bands can only wish that thier best efforts come anywhere close to Sugar's "trash". The raw energy of "Needle Hits E" and the amazing live version of "JC Auto" alone make it worth owning. Also standing out is the live version "The Slim" and the remix of "Believe What You're Saying". The icing for me, though, is the live "Explode And Make Up", which recalls the miserable, agonizing masterpiece of lost love that was Husker Du's "Candy Apple Grey" album.

Husker Du is gone, unfortunately,of course now so is Sugar, but I truly think this is Sugar's best album!Great Songs:Needle Hits E,Mind Is An Island,Where Diamonds are Halos,And You Tell Me (Cool bass line),Clownmaster,Frustrated(Like My Bloody Valentine, but with discernable vocals)And it's all topped off with a harrowing live version of The Slim that made my blood run cold!Bob IS noise. Beautiful noise, and the other guys perform and write and sing very well.After two more solo albums, what will Bob do next?God Only Knows===

Sure, maybe it is just a collection of leftovers. What a great bunch of stuff to have left. Highlight: If I Can't Change Your Mind(solo mix)

If you missed the singles, this is for you. There are some amazing tracks here that belong at the top of the Sugar cannon but it is the live renditions of "Explode and Make Up" and "The Slim" that realy blows you away. Bob rips the honest heart of these classic tracks and sticks it in your face. Superb! But hey! Bob Mould is Bob Mould.

Back in the '80s, Minneapolis was home to some of the best post-punk bands known to mankind like The Replacements, Soul Asylum (before Dave Pirner sold his soul to the devil with "Runaway Train"), Babes in Toyland (Courtney Love has nothing on Kat Bjelland), and Husker Du. After Husker Du broke up, Bob Mould moved on to Sugar. I wasn't a big fan of the band but they did have some solid songs, especially on their debut album "Copper Blue". One of my favorite songs is "If I Can't Change Your Mind", especially the acoustic mix. It received a lot of airplay here in the land of 10,000 lakes.

The other day I was at my local library and came across Sugar's b-side compilation "Besides". I had to check it out because of the solo mix of "If I Can't Change Your Mind" which was Bob Mould on acoustic guitar. I rarely hear the song on my local radio stations nowadays (thank you very much Clear Channel for ruining music diversity on the radio). I found "Besides" enjoyable for the most part but towards the end of the cd, the music began to get on my nerves. Now I know why some of these songs weren't previously released, they were not very good to begin with. I really did enjoy songs such as "Needle Hits E", and "Try Again". The first half of the cd was actually solid. I think Bob Mould should have made this full length album and EP (extended play) and ended the cd somewhere between "Anyone" and "Mind is An Island". For all its flaws, "Besides" is tolerable enough to give it 3.5 stars and it sounds a lot better than a lot of new music today.

This B-sides CD is not full of fillers. It has tracks that are worthy of Sugar's awesome studio albums. The promo sleeve stated, "Over 70 minutes of great Sugar material that you probably didn't even know existed!" Well, I knew it existed. Back in the day, I bought the CD singles because Sugar was my favorite band and I wanted every song I could get. Rykodisc really pumped out the singles, too. I had over a dozen, and several different ones for the same song, like "If I Can't Change Your Mind." I loved the tracks that didn't make the studio albums and made a mix tape of them. When "Besides" came out, I was a bit bummed because it made my singles collection less impressive, but it does take up less space. Not all the b-sides are included on this CD. One track that I wish was here was the version of "The Slim" that is on the "I Can't Change Your Mind" single with the pink lettering. There is another single with yellow lettering which does not have that track. It is the most powerful version of that song I have ever heard. Bob Mould sounds like he puts everything he has into the vocals. The version of "The Slim" on "Besides" is also very powerful. His screams are gut-wrenching. The version of "Explode and Make Up" is also a highlight. It is a dark, beautiful live version with Mould changing up the vocals a bit. This review, though, will concentrate on the tracks not found on Copper Blue, Beaster, and File Under: Easy Listening.

David Barbe's contributions are all awesome, especially "Anyone." That song flat out rocks. I wish he was a better singer, as he hits some flat notes in it, but it is still one of my favorite Sugar songs. "Where Diamonds Are Halos" was probably the first b-side I heard by Sugar, and it is very catchy. The slow "Frustration" and the rocking "In The Eyes Of My Friends" are quality tracks, the latter probably being Barbe's best vocal performance. More of his material should have made it on the studio albums as "Company Book" off FU:EL is great. His songs have intelligent lyrics, too. There is usually some big word I have to look up.

Of Mould's non-studio album released tracks, my favorite is the dark and intense "Try Again" followed closely by "My Mind Is An Island." The ending riff to the latter rocks. "And You Tell Me" is great, too. When the guitar kicks in, it is very intense. "Needle Hits E" is a fun, upbeat number. The guitar in "Going Home" really drives it, well, home. "Armenia City In The Sky" flat out rocks. "After All The Roads Have Led To Nowhere" also rocks and would have fit nicely on a late Husker Du album, and Barbe provides nice backing vocals. Even the instrumental, "Clownmaster," is no filler.

That is 12 songs that are not on Sugar's studio releases. That is a solid album's worth of additional Sugar tracks without a weak one in the bunch. I still play this CD often during my cardio workouts. It is one of my favorite CDs--and it's b-sides! That demonstrates how much quality material Sugar was writing back then. I wish the band continued for a few more studio releases, but Mould's solo albums have gotten better and better this past decade. "Besides" includes lyrics to all the tracks and, early releases, has an extra live show disc.

This is good, solid stuff! It's hard to believe that these are B-sides, although there are some that are much better than others.

What I always liked about Sugar, is that they never got flashy or over-produced. They just play great music, and that's the case with most of this CD too. It definitely has its strong parts: "Needle," "If I can't Change Your Mind," "Believe" but this is worth having.

The funny thing is that this was my first Sugar disc. I built from here, so it was good enough to get me hooked!

I think it's just criminal that "Needle Hits E" was left off Copper Blue. It would have made a great album even greater. But at least we finally got it here. Mould also delivers with "Mind Is An Island," "Going Home" and "After All The Roads Have Led To Nowhere." Additionally, "Armenia City In The Sky" is an agreeably groovy cover.

Probably the most illuminating aspect of this album is that it finally gave us a decent look at bassist David Barbe's songwriting abilities. For all the talk of Sugar being something more than just Bob Mould and some hired guns, the band's three proper releases up to this point had been dominated completely by Mould except for Barbe's just-OK "Company Book." Barbe has four songs on Besides, and they're all pretty good. I would argue that "In The Eyes Of My Friends" and "When Diamonds Are Halos" deserved better than a B-sides compilation. Barbe doesn't have nearly the voice that Mould does, but as long as he stays within his limited range, he sings well enough.

I was never able to see Sugar live during the band's limited life, so the bonus live disc (which came with a limited number of copies) is particularly gratifying.

If you missed the singles, this is for you. There are some amazing tracks here that belong at the top of the Sugar cannon but it is the live renditions of "Explode and Make Up" and "The Slim" that realy blows you away. Bob rips the honest heart of these classic tracks and sticks it in your face. Superb! But hey! Bob Mould is Bob Mould.

"Needle Hits E" leads off this album, bright-sounding and well-produced, perhaps giving the false impression that the tunes to follow will also fit right in with the mighty Copper Blue CD from 1992.

Sorry, that's not the case.

Still, "Besides" is an interesting hodge-podge of work: live cuts, a cover song and yes, good (but not always great) B-sides from the great Sugar. Bob Mould and the guys deliver solid tracks in revamped form here, such as on the acoustic versions of "If I Can't Change Your Mind" and "Believe What You're Saying;" plus they chug out intense live versions of "JC Auto," "Explode and Make Up" and "The Slim." Overall, there's kind of an uneven sound to "Besides," which was likely the intent. The wall-of-sound thickness often heard on regular Sugar albums may have been heavy, but it was also melodic and pristinely recorded. That's far from the case on this CD, where other live tunes like "Where Diamonds are Halos" (sung by bassist David Barbe), and "Armenia City in the Sky" (a cover song) show Sugar at its rugged best on stage (ie. strained vocals, hard-hitting drums, misplaced notes and guitars that envelope the room). Elsewhere, the frenetic pace of the instrumental "Clownmaster" and the completely rocking "Mind is an Island" and "Going Home" represent some of the best work Sugar ever did, so you really do have to dig deep on this CD to see what's offered. What "Besides" lacks in overall fresh, stellar material from Sugar, it makes up for with raw aggression and a sincere, dignified, final sendoff that many lesser bands who "retire," come back, "retire," come back, could learn from.

Sugar are missed...