Customer Reviews

Poison Years

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

 

 

This is a weird record, one gets the feeling that Bob Mould didn't have much to do with it's release. It takes five songs from the "Black Sheets" album, two from "Workbook," one unreleased gem, and five live cuts. Perhaps it's meant as an introduction to Mould before you jump all the way in. Either way, fans new and old are better off shelling out their money for the "Black Sheets" and "Workbook" albums in their entirety, as this compilation lacks many key cuts. This is a worhtwhile record, however, for the new or old fan. "All The People Know" is a previously unreleased song that is classic Mould. And the five live tracks from 1989 are brilliant, absolute masterworks that no Mould fan will want to go without. I'm a die-hard who at first resisted "Poison Years" because I already had "Black" and "Workbook," but I recently gave in. I can now say without a doubt that the live tracks are worth the price of the CD alone. He rips through alot of "Workbook" stuff and does a killer cover, R. Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights." Each and every Bob Mould fan has to hear this track. It's a major work, beautiful, cathartic, stunning raw power. It makes "Poison Years" rise above the rest of the cheap compilations out there and enter the ranks as a Great Bob Mould Record.

Bob's record company put out this album to try and scrap a few more bucks out of his fans, Bob himself urged people not to buy it, it was compiled and released without his consent. You're doing Bob a disservice if you pony up any dough for this one.

This low grade is not against the music. It's against the crummy packaging on this "compilation" CD that takes tracks from only two albums and throws on some live tracks in a ... way to make money off Mould's growing fame with his band Sugar. The cover artwork is atrocious (a bottle of poison! A silly and demeaning way to treat such a beautiful and personal song!) and the inside just has tiny black & white photos of Mould on stage carelessly organized. Like the previous reviewer, I also read that Mould urged fans not to buy this CD as he did not endorse it. Mould has more integrity than almost any other rocker in the business ... . Awesome tracks like "Black Sheets of Rain," "Stop Your Crying", "Sacrifice", etc. are better found on his first two solo albums, not here. Buy Workbook and Black Sheets of Rain and you won't hate yourself in the morning.

A key album leading to Mould's work with Sugar. Songs like See A Little Light were common stock on MTV's 120 Minutes. Top rate work but still wonderfully rough around the edges.