A man who needs little – if any – introduction, Bob Mould has been making classy records for well over 40 years now, initially with the fiery Hüsker Dü, then with the more commercial 1990s band Sugar, and of course a long and varied solo career that began in the late 1980s. This is Mould’s fifteenth solo venture and, astonishingly, it’s one of his absolute best.
I’m probably a little biased, as my personal favourite of his, over the course of his career, is Sugar’s 1992 release Copper Blue. In Mould’s own words, that “was such a great pop record“, so it is with absolute delight that I can tell you that Here We Go Crazy is probably closer to that highly palatable record than anything else he’s ever put out, especially with the uplifting title track that begins the album and the brilliant, ultra-commercial ‘When Your Heart Is Broken‘. I mean, I say uplifting, and musically, it absolutely is just that, but as I’m sure you can gather from those titles alone, perhaps lyrically less so: “Lost on a mountain, no-one can find me / Fall from a tower in the middle of a city / I can hear the chatter of a broken bowl of ivory / Razor blade, renegade, cut yourself daily.”
Of course, Bob Mould is never particularly predictable, so it left me wide-eyed with wonder when ‘Fur Mink Augurs‘ burst out of my speakers. Sure, there’s a nod to his erstwhile bands, but there’s an added ‘metal’ feel here in the vein of Rainbow or, to an extent, Iron Maiden. This surprised me enormously and, what’s more, it works beautifully. It’s easily the noisiest track here, the intense driving rhythm of its fabulous counterpart ‘Neanderthal‘ notwithstanding.
That Mould can juxtapose pieces of such a breathtaking, fierce passion with the likes of the utterly gorgeous ‘Lost Or Stolen‘ surely cements his status as a post-hardcore rock legend, if, indeed, it ever needed cementing. The latter song is hardly a barrel of laughs, lyrically: “Paranoid and schizoid thoughts / I am unconscious / They send me on an endless path to deep addictions that I fight all day“, yet somehow it’s wholly relatable and poignant to the point of being devastatingly beautiful.
Other tracks here are far more saleable to the everyman, such as the intoxicating fervour of ‘Hard To Get‘ surely one of the most instantly singable tunes in the entire Mould canon, while the contented harmony of finding a lasting love on ‘Your Side‘ is a charming way to bring the curtain down.
Here We Go Crazy is simply a fantastic album, and easily one of my favourites of 2025 so far. You’d never know that Bob Mould was practically a pensioner now. He’s still as vibrant as ever, and long may that continue.
Here We Go Crazy is released on 7th March through BMG.
