Customer Reviews

Candy Apple Grey

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Husker Du has made a history of being one of the seminal punk bands of the 80's. Listening to their albums, you notice their range of being able to play almost any kind of music. With Candy Apple Grey,Bob Mould(guitar/vocals), Grant Hart (drummer/vocals)and Greg Norton(bassist)show their ability to sing about one of the hardest things in life, breaking up. Mould and Hart write songs that get right to the truthfulness of breaking up. Hart's "Don't Want to Know if You're Lonely" is a rocking plead to an ex-lover to stop tempting the narrator to come back for another heart break. Hart's songs have a full sound that give an encompassing atmosphere of what the singer is feeling. His optimistic "Sorry Somehow" is an organ driven punk anthem about a couple trying to give it another try. Bob Mould's songs are straight and direct, hitting you right in the chest and not letting go. The beautiful (and my personal favorite)"Hardly Getting Over it" shows a man trying to tell the story of a friend being ripped up by post-relationship depression and dealing with his own depression. You can hear Mould's heart tear when he lowly sings "Now he's hardly getting over it/Hardly getting used to getting by".It's one of the most emotional songs I've ever heard. "I Don't know for sure" and "all this I've done for you" give Mould a little more kick to his emotional punch. " Dead Set on Destruction" is a hard punk song that call to the day's of Husker Du's suicidal opus Zen Arcade.Mould's "Crystal" fails to live up to the rest of the album with muddy melodies and swampy riffs that just don't give you the real Husker feel. The same goes for Mould's "Too Far Down" except that "Down" has that dark feel that Candy Apple Grey keeps after "Crystal". "Eiffel Tower High" and "No Promise Have I Made" keep the emo punk light burning with smart lyrics and melodic guitars. Over all this album doesn't live up to the thrash melodies of the amazing Zen Arcade, but it's a great album on it's own terms. Grey blends acoustic emotions and alterna-punk strumming in a way that is unbrassingly evocative, and it sets Husker Du as one of the most ambitious artists from the 80's punk scene.

This was Husker Du's first album with Warner Bros., having adopted a totally mainstream sound. I like their later SST material (New Day Rising, especially), and some of their earlier stuff ("In a Free Land," "Diane," "Gravity," "Amusement," "Chartered Trips," "Pink Turns to Blue," "Statues," etc.) but I find the final era of their career incredible! I consider Candy Apple Grey as well as Warehouse: Songs and Stories to be their most solid albums. Pretty much every track here is amazing, especially Grant Hart's songs. Whereas, I tend to prefer Bob Mould's music to Hart's on the early Husker albums, Hart really emerged as a excellent singer-songwriter on Flip Your Wig through Warehouse. Three of my all-time favorite Hart tracks are here. Bob Mould was getting rather introspective on this album, perhaps he was already looking ahead to his brilliant Workbook solo project.

"Crystal" (Mould) 3:28: One more angry, noisy, pre-Flip Your Wig-style song before diving into the mainstream sound.
"Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" (Hart) 3:29: Excellent single and one of Hart's best. Addictive track! I don't know about the line "I don't want to know if you are less than lonely," but it's such a great sound, who cares?
"I Don't Know For Sure" (Mould) 2:27: My favorite Mould track on this album. Very catchy. Killer drumming by Hart.
"Sorry Somehow" (Hart) 4:25: Another excellent Hart track. I love the organ sound and Mould guitar solo. Hart's vocals are great, too.
"Too Far Down" (Mould) 4:37; "Hardly Getting Over It" (Mould) 6:02: Two slow, depressing tracks by Mould. A nice change-of-pace, but two in a row is a little much, especially considering how long they are. They tend to drag, but they are not bad songs by any stretch. I'm not sure what was going on in Mould's life when he was writing these, but he was certainly getting out some dark emotions: "I wish that I just could die or let someone else be happy by setting my own self free." "Hardly Getting Over It" is so depressing to be almost comical, especially when it gets to the line "Grandma, she got sick, she is going to die." I know it's not meant to be funny, but that line always cracks me up.

"Dead Set on Destruction" (Hart) 2:59: The title would make one think this song is really hard and heavy, but it's just a straight-forward, light rock song about a guy trying to get to his girlfriend but all the means of transportation are grounded (I'm not sure if he really means he's "dead set on destruction," the sound of the song makes that line seem exaggerated). Not as stellar as Hart's other tracks here, but it's a nice little catchy number.
"Eiffel Tower High" (Mould) 2:49: I don't know what this song is suppose to be about, but I really like the sound and you gotta love the line "She walked out to the lobby for a box of Junior Mints." I find myself singing along to the chorus "And I scream `Mary Eiffel Tower Hiiiiiigh!'" without having any idea what I'm singing.
"No Promise Have I Made" (Hart) 3:39: Another Hart masterpiece! A beautiful ballad with piano. Love it!
"All This I've Done For You" (Mould) 3:09: The album ends with a good, solid rocker. This is definitely an album to set to "Repeat All" without having to skip a track, unless the two middle tracks are too much of a downer.

Of their "major label" releases, this is clearly the best. As with _Flip Your Wig_, cleaner production and better pacing allow the songs to speak more clearly. Hart & Mould's individual styles begin to become clearer, too -- yet they're clearly still together, as some of their best riffs appear on songs by their opposite number.

This is one of the three best Husker albums, each great for its own strength: _Zen Arcade_ for its vision, _New Day Rising_ for its unflagging energy and power, and _Candy Apple Grey_ for the consistent, well, _quality_ of songwriting, musicianship and production. If you have to pick one Husker Du record, pick from these three for the virtue you value most.

I've had this for over 10 years and own over 2000 lps and this is still the best album i have. It sounds better on vinyl but whatever format its the playing and the songs that make it a classic. Husker Du must be my all time favourite band, they take all the melodicism of The Beatles and marry it with the buzzsaw intensity of Ramones and shoot it all through with such emotion and passion it never fails to connect. This ones their best album (though its hard to choose really)as it contains Bob Mould's heartbreaking ballads Too Far Down and Hardly Getting Over It and Grant Hart's amazing organ driven Sorry Somehow. They only managed 1 more album after this, the outstanding Warehouse but this is their Nevermind, Pet Sounds, Revolver and Rocket To Russia all rolled into one. Its really that good, actually its better!!

"Candy Apple Grey" was legendary punk band Husker Du's first major label release after years of hard/fast punk albums featuring their unique melodic touch. Most of "Grey" fits right in with the band's previous work, as songs like "Crystal," "Dead Set on Destruction" and "Sorry Somehow," roar along at a breakneck pace with bleak down-and-out lyrical imagery. Right in the middle of the proceedings, however, the band throws a couple of curveballs in the form of two Bob Mould-penned accoustic numbers, "Too Far Down," and "Hardly Getting Over It." These two songs are gorgeous and would marking the beginning of s diversification of Husker Du's sound that would result in the resounding triumph of their next album, "Warehouse: Songs and Stories," as well as mark the path that Mould would eventually take on his early solo career. Some long time fans of the band were disappointed by Mould allegedly "going soft," but there is nothing wimpy about his accoustic side, as he has proven time and time again since then.

Overall, "Candy Apple Grey" is a first rate punk rock album with a maturity that is rare for the genre and has allowed it to stand the test of time.

Candy Apple Grey has always been a strange album in the Husker catalog because of several reasons.1-It has 3 ballads in it;2-It only has 10 songs and 3-it's the only of all their albums in which Grant Hart's songs are actually better than the ones composed by Bob Mould.

Granted the Mould made the poignant"Hardly Getting over it"and the rocking"Eiffel Tower High"but the brightest moments of the record come with Hart's"Don't Want to Know..."(his best song ever),his straight edge rocker"Dead Set on Destruction"and the pretty piano ballad"No Promise have I made" .

Not the most consistent of their albums but one that makes for a highly rewarding and intriguing listening experience.

this is the first record i'd ever heard from husker du. I bought it in 1986 in high school and listened to it bookend-ed between shriekback's "oil and gold" and the butthole surfers "psychic powerless and another man's sac" for about a year until the cassette (unwittingly, yet ceremoniously) self-destructed in my datsun's tape player.

that seems like extraneous information wrt to husker du, but it isn't. this record made me want to see where this band came from, so i did. and discovered their discography backwards from candy apple grey.

i still listen to husker du in 2004 as much as i did when i first learned about them. i think the trio of wig, new day rising, and zen arcade is unmatched in sheer sonic accolade-worthy diy rock. but i still think candy apple grey is a terrific record.

candy apple grey shows the artistic expression of the band as it was beginning to blow itself apart. songs like dead set on destruction and eiffel tower high back-to-back show how the band was simultaneously moving forward while the dynamic tension of hart and mould conditioned the peak musical experience with frenetic but controlled energy on the verge of total obliteration.

in my mind candy apple grey is a seminal and pivotal record for rock and roll. and while the band was on a bigger label, they were playing for the same reason: emotional aural experience. and the band never compensated for that with their sound or their enthusiasm.

candy apple grey is a five star record in a universe of music where 3 stars is really good, 4 stars is essential, and 5 stars is classic, 18 years later.

CAG is one of those albums that I return to at specific moments... when you are feeling so far down that it offers catharsis and you can't help but feel better. First heard it during a confusing time in my life and was floored that Mould and Hart "knew" that feeling too.

Punk Rock Rule No. 1: To ensure credibility never sign to a major label.

In1986 Husker Du did just that by signing with Warner Bros. and releasing `Candy Apple Grey'. For numerous reason this is the ultimate heresy for any punk rock fan or band. The most significant reason though would be the belief that a band had decided instead to pursue the `almighty buck' instead of their previous musical vision. In almost all cases the music is the first to suffer by the fact the music is toned down significantly in order to shift units.

Husker Du had been signed to the seminal S.S.T. records, which is quite possibly one of the greatest independent record labels ever. While Husker Du were there they released `Zen Arcade' and `New Day Rising' which is still regarded by hard core fans to be their best and I have no argument with that because it's true. However I differ with most fans when it comes to `Candy Apple Grey'.

`Candy Apple Grey' is a fine collection of fuzzy pop punk songs. While the album does not contain the same level of hardcore fuzz that previous albums had there is still plenty to ensure no commercial potential. What I feel is always overlooked is the fact that underneath all that fuzz on their original albums is great songs and that is what made them great. The difference is that `Candy' has some of Husker Du's finer crafted pop songs, which you can also hear a bit more clearly. If that makes me a punk rock heretic then so be it because I love this album and think it's criminally neglected. So while it lacks the credibility of previous albums it's still worthy of your attention.

To those who are not familiar with Husker Du buy this album because I think it is an excellent introduction to the band. After that buy `Zen Arcade' & `New Day Rising' or just buy all three now because all three are worthy of a place in your collection. Grunge and the musical revolution of the 90s would not have happened without Husker Du.

This is the first album I heard from Husker Du. I like alot of things about it. Its fast, heavy, slow, and mellow all on one album. Bob Mould and Grant Hart really wrote some great songs on this record, especially Hart. This was the beginning of the end of Husker Du as Mould and Hart would fight for control and break up the band. Favorites include Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely, Sorry Somehow, Too Far Down, Eiffel Tower High, and All This I've Done for You. Highly Recommended.