Warehouse: Songs & Stories

Hüsker Dü | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: July 7, 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Ada
• ASIN: B000005JAM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,277 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

"Ice Cold Ice," in which Bob Mould rails against "barren lands and barren minds" and Grant Hart falls in on the supercatchy chorus, exemplifies the Hüsker Dü career development that peaks on this final album. Without sacrificing the emotional intensity of earlier albums, the Minneapolis trio beefs up the guitar-based melodies and sneaks in pop songcraft in lieu of the old fast-and-loud hardcore style. On this 1987 double album, as usual, guitarist Mould supplies the personal songs ("Standing in the Rain"), while drummer Hart remains more broadly political ("Tell You Why Tomorrow"). --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HuDu's final masterpiece, April 23, 2000

By 

Jay (seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warehouse: Songs & Stories (Audio CD)

By the time this record came out, it was clear that Husker Du was doomed. While Hart and Mould were on different artistic pages on Candy Apple Grey (Hart more poppish, Mould more personal), they don't even sound like they're reading from the same book in Warehouse. In any given song, the songwriter overdubs his own voice rather than getting backing from the other. Also, as on the Beatles' fragmented White Album, almost every songwriter alternates: Mould/Hart/Mould... And finally, the lyrics contain many frank elusions to the onrushing split -- Mould cries out "The biggest thing to me / Is making this thing work for life / We gotta turn it around," while Hart grimly states "Things didn't go exactly as they planned... There's a vacancy between them every day." Ultimately, the split seems inevitable to the listener -- Mould is simply too depressed and angry, Hart too screwed up and stubborn. However, this record stands as their final collaboration and artistic swan song.

The primary reason that this record is so good is simply the songs -- it is twice as long as their other records but is the most consistent set of their career. Warehouse plays more like an extended single album than an artsy, ambitious double LP such as Zen Arcade -- the songs are almost all straight ahead pop-as-punk, but are more forthright with their debt to 60's rock: Songs such as "Turn It Around" or "No Reservations" carry a singer-songwriter twist, while "She's a Woman" is pure pop and "Tell You Why Tomorrow" is an invigorating hit of psychedelia. In general, Hart experiments more but the overall quality of his songs are lower than Mould's, whose contributions are universally excellent -- he turns in not a single weak track, while several of Hart's tunes are simply a basis for having a good time in the studio.

Which brings me to the second strength of the record -- its production. Much like Pet Sounds, this album matches the band's more mature songwriting with a gorgeous, adventurous, broad-ranging sound, complete with cleaner multitracked guitar and vocal, various percussion techniques and endless studio effects, from the chiming clocks closing "Tell You Why Tomorrow" to the shimmering reverb carrying "Up in the Air" into "You Can Live at Home."

However, due to the fierce rivalry and tension between the band at the time of recording, the album is emotionally a mixed bag -- Hart tends to be more simplistic sad-pop or happy-pop as on the bubbly "Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope" or the grim but uptempo "She's a Woman", whereas Mould delivers a broader palette of veiled admonishments and pleas to Hart ("Friend You've Got to Fall," "Turn It Around") as well as incisive self-examination ("Bed of Nails," "No Reservations") and clear-eyed philosophizing ("These Important Years"). The album's closers are majestic and amzing: "Up in the Air" (which is Mould's veiled entreaty to Hart not to leave) and "You Can Live at Home" (which is Hart's epic jam declaring "I can be beautiful without you torturing me / Walk, walk away").

Ultimately, this album is a collection of 20 songs of the first order, fabulously produced and driven by one of the best songwriting teams since Lennon and McCartney. It stands as their final statement, and what an eloquent statement it is.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Debate, April 1, 2005

By 

H. L. Thomas (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warehouse: Songs & Stories (Audio CD)

I'm a Husker Du fan. I was lucky to see them live and then to see Bob Mould solo live (Sugar is a different beast altogether). I like so many have been a fan from the first blast of Land Speed Record. Their last studio recording really is beautiful, and it really does show the way that Grant Hart and Bob Mould challenged each other to the very end of the band. Norton's bass and presence held them together. Each release was a bit different from the other, but it is obvious that Flip Your Wig and Candy Apple Grey complete a story of a sound. This sound is infectious. The assault of guitar and voice is without a doubt the strongest of American rock. I have always viewed them as something of an American folk band with the politics being a politics of the emotive soul. Why? The lyrics explore every emotion possible and then some. And the music stands right beside the words presenting each and every song as the continuing story of Warehouse Songs. This band was pure genius and Warehouse Songs stands tall today. It is fast and then melodious. It has violent emotions and then tender insights ("she lifted her arms and floated away.."). Once in the car CD player this is a difficult disc to take out unless it is replaced with the Ramones Anthology or Elvis Costello Girls Girls Girls. Because I am a fan of the band I can't dismiss one recording over another the way that the epic Zen Arcade is pitched against the boom/crash of New Day Rising, so as a musical essay on it's own Warehouse Songs is fairly perfect.
And that's the way this disc is: fast American rock/punk and emotive song crafting.
I miss the pairing of songs that Mould and Hart were so talented at putting together.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Husker Du's finest hour, and the best album of the 80's, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Warehouse: Songs & Stories (Audio CD)

Songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart never tried to force the chemistry between each other, it was simply THERE. Like Lennon and McCartney, Mould and Hart tapped into the subconscious and made music that to this day hasn't dated the slightest bit. Together with Greg Norton, they simply blew away everyone by progressing from the raw aggression of "Zen Arcade" to the sublime maturity of "Warehouse". Maturity is a word I select because it shows people being forced to deal with their problems instead of simply yelling about them. "Warehouse" is an album to live by, and it only gets more rewarding as time goes on.