Customer Reviews

Copper Blue

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I haven't listened to Copper Blue much since my college era, but feel I owe it to the band to recommend this to everyone, as it gave me infinite audio pleasure for years! Bob Mould is a legend and I say that on the strength of his 'Sugar' work alone, as Husker Du were before my time. The songs are of a catchy, feel-good nature, with NO cheese whatsoever. You know you're onto something when a CD can be played from start to finish without needing to skip for poor stuff. A few years old (1992), but this makes no difference, it's class! In my Top 5 albums ever. Even more underrated (in the media sense) is 'Beaster' - 1993 mini-album. Get this too! Loud, sometimes happy, sometimes dark and very thought-provoking. If there was ever a band that deserved to be rich, it's Sugar - for these two releases. I hope they are.

I'm not much for hype and I don't normally like to use "best" in describing any form of art, but I am honestly hard-pressed to think of any album that was released in the 90s that can match the consistency of excellence, the lyrical prowess and the raw emotion contained throughout "Copper Blue". Bob Mould is one of the unheralded geniuses in popular music over the past 25 years and this album stands as evidence of his brilliance.

From "The Act we Act" through "Man on the Moon", there is not a single low point on this CD. Simply put, it never lets up. This is not to say that it is not dynamic - "Hoover Dam" and "If I can't change yoru mind" are perfect, acoustic complements to the Les Paul-heavy power chords that function as the engine which drives the high level of energy throughout.

This CD is painfully consistent in its emotional intensity and this fact is punctuated both by its melodic energy and its lyrical strengths. Mould's lyrical creations manifest themselves in the form of compassion ("Helpless"), desperation ("If I can't change your mind") and even haunting nihilism ("A Good Idea").

The combination of the raw emotion inherent in the lyrics, coupled with the consistency of Mould's melodic sensibilities and disciplined yet uninhibited vocal talents, make this CD the most emotionally-charged CD in some time. Mould's willingness to bare his emotions allow the songs to move the listener in a manner in which he or she may not be fully prepared.

This CD has not only held up incredibly well over the years, it trumps most, if not all, of what has been released since.

In my opinion, this is the best album of Bob's discography. Every song has a pulse but it could still be filed under easy listening. I 1st got Copper Gold on cassette tape after seeing them on 120 minutes. The tape was in my tape deck playing continuously for several months. The music & lyrics from track to track are well-constructed and purposeful, yet, unlike Husker Du, they never veer too far from the mainstream. Get this album!

I was looking forward to this reissue for several weeks. I was severely disappointed at the quality of the remastering. For starters, "The Act We Act" isn't even at the right speed (it's slightly slower than the original CD release), AND the song is distorted, leaving me to believe that it was pressed too loudly to the vinyl. But all of the songs suffer from bad vinyl mastering. You can't hear the acoustic guitars very well alongside the electrics in "Helpless"; "A Good Idea"/"Changes" just sounds plain bad. This is one of my favorite records of all time, and its a shame that my 20-year old CD sounds better than this. Side 2 is more of the same.

Incidentally, it comes with a free download. You get both the WAV and MP3 files. I listened to the wav's, and they sound significantly better than the LP, but not quite as good as the original 1992 CD. The drums are overly compressed (the snare is slightly distorted in some spots and the cymbals don't sound quite right). However, the guitars sound a little "bigger".

The other problem with the MP3s and WAv files is that the segue between "Fortune Teller" and "Slick" on the MP3s is awkward in the way it was cut. The train effect is both at the end of "Fortune Teller" and the beginning of "Slick". Essentially, the train is supposed to slow down at the end of "Fortune Teller", then pick up speed and segue into "Slick". What happens is the train slows down, picks up, then there's a click as it switches tracks, then the train slows down again, picks up speed, and then goes into "Slick". Seriously, did anyone at Ryko listen to this before releasing it?

For comparison, I bought the new Foo Fighters record (which also comes with a download). I would call myself a casual Foo Fighters fan, but a HUGE Sugar fan. However, I was amazed at how good the vinyl sounds. The sound quality of the Foo's "Wasting Light" on vinyl is way better than most of my CDs, and stands as an example of why I buy music on LP nowadays anyway. It makes me even more disappointed in how this reissue of "Copeer Blue" came out.

Maybe Bob Mould or Lou Giordano should have supervised this reissue. Randy LeRoy and Frank Marchand at Airshow Studios did the remastering on this one. I'm thinking neither of them own a turntable. Or maybe they just didn't put much care and effort into it. I don't know.

Sorry, I love this record - its one of my all time favorites, but the remastering has a lot to be desired. Go find the original Copper Blue if you want the vinyl. This one isn't worth the money.

It's interesting to read the reviews of Sugar's "Copper Blue", 13 years on. Back when this gem came out, several of the songs got significant airplay on album-rock and college stations-- The Act We Act, Changes, Hoover Dam, and The Slim, especially.

'Back in the day', I thought this effort received some unfair criticism. Some reviewers characterized it as just Husker Du II. (Even if that was accurate-- and I don't think it was-- that's a bad thing?!) Copper Blue does have some of the post-punk/power-pop feel that Husker Du's "Flip Your Wig" had, but there's a difference between adding a dash of accessibility and selling out. Like "Flip", this album is deserving of the term, tour de force.

The power of Copper Blue takes hold from the first track, and although the final three cuts don't quite measure up to the rest, the first seven are so superior, this album still deserves a place among the top 10 rock albums of the '90s.

Bob Mould and Grant Hart were among the greatest and most influential song writers of the 1980s. On Copper Blue, Mould shines on his own. He's still at it, and he has a new CD on the way in July '05!

The overwhelming praise for this album written by Amazon reviewers caused me to dust off this disc and give it another spin. Through most of the nineties I ignored Sugar, in favor of good ole' Husker Du and Bob Mould solo when I needed a corn-fed buzz guitar fix. However, a fresh listen has brought me in agreement with the other reviewers of this recording. Copper Blue stands up to the best of the Husker catalog as well as his incredible solo albums. While I don't consider the album perfect - I find the radio-friendly "If I Can't Change Your Mind" slightly trite and "Man on the Moon" to be an arena-rock sing-a-long - I was brought to teeth-grinding euphoria from the power of the first four cuts. It worked me up so much that the reflective melodies of "Hoover Dam" were just the antidote to help me catch my breath for the relentless power of "The Slim". Thanks Amazon for helping me rediscover a treasure.

Has it actually been 8 years? It doesn't sound like it. I remember my college DJ friend telling me this was the best album since Sgt. Pepper, and when I heard it at a party I wasn't very impressed. But on his advice I bought it, and between the second and third listen I was hooked like a fish.

Every person I let borrow this album got these instructions: Listen to it 3 times. I don't recall one who did not fall under its spell, even those who weren't into "harder" music.

How did Bob get this guitar sound? He should write a manual; the fireworks he displays on this album are matched by NOTHING in the Husker Du catalogue. The strength of the songs lies not only in the way they are completely different from each other lyrically, but the way they each seem to be crying out for attention on this album. The singles don't even stand out because every song could have been a single (let's be grateful If I Can't Change Your Mind didn't get as big as it should have).

The reason the album is so resonant is that the tunefulness of the songs is not transparent surface shine. The melodies are buried under the gorgeous quilt of noise. This needlecraft of each song is something your ear excavates like an archeologist; Bob has buried them to be enjoyed much farther down the road. Each track gets inside you like sonic scabies and EARNS your appreciation: You are on that journey in Hoover Dam, writhing with the pain in The Slim, there for the River's Edge horror of A Good Idea, inside the car and hospital room of Slick, giddy regarding the Man on the Moon. A patchwork of very different feelings and scenes that somehow fits perfectly together.

What makes it additionally satisfying is knowing that as crafted as this album is, the band delivered the goods in full force on stage. The live show was an experience just as powerful but more direct and urgent. Anyone who was fortunate enough to see them or get the bonus live disc with the Besides album can vouch for that.

A final note, I'll never know why Bob included that snippet at the end of Slick with the studio talking, but it never fails to make me smile.

"Copper Blue" is the best album that Sugar guitarist Bob Mould has been involved with since the great Husker Du broke up. This album is Mould coming to grips with both his punk past and his pop songwriter's sensibility. The result is a lot of great guitar squalls wrapping themselves around radio ready fare like "If I Can't Change Your Mind" and "Helpless." Mould's gutteral growl and stinging guitar work highlight the album, but this is also his strongest set of songs as a songwriter. Overall, a classic and one of the best rock albums of the early 1990s.

As a college student in the early 1990's, I had the opportunity to combine the laziest days of my life with some of the best music to come out in the last twenty years. I was, and remain, a huge fan of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other bands that recorded seminal or breakthrough albums during that period. Out of all of that great music, the one album that I keep going back to year after year is Copper Blue by Sugar.
The first time I heard it was in a friend's dorm room. I couldn't get the music out of my head. It buzzed and raged and sang to you all at the same time. It was a sound that was alien and yet familiar. I immediatly ran out and bought the album. Through the years have recommended it over and over. It is the best album from that time period. Period.

When I first listened to this CD I was amazed by the great music, complex wall of sounds, and intelligent lyrics. My music friends and I once declared that Bob Mould was god due to this CD. Listen to the complex guitar riffs in "Good Idea," or the calliope-like sound on "Hoover Dam." This music rocks, and really kept my energy flowing while I was working out on the treadmill, stairclimber and exercise bike. The only thing that mystifies me is why this cd never got the attention and recognition it deserved. Maybe the band's name - Sugar - was a total misnomer for such powerful music. Anyway, about a year ago I lost the CD and after accepting the fact that it was really lost for good, bought it again. Its great to hear it all over again. So I've bought this CD twice and it was worth the price each time.