#19
Husker Du
"New Day Rising"(1985)
My first of only a few repeat-bands on this list. I was debating whether or not to keep it to 30 seperate bands, one album each, but in my eyes, what the list would gain in eclectisity (word?) it would lose in quality. Also, there was more than one Pavement album that I really wanted to mention, and if I'm going to make an exeption for them, I'm going to have to make one for everyone. So here you have it, the second, and final, Husker Du album on this list, and my favorite Husker Du album. Although I bought this in 2006, I had a cassete of 'New Day Rising' since I was in ninth grade, although the only song I ever listened to was "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill". In retrospect I can see why, this is Husker Du's perfect fusion of their hardcore roots with their indie aesthetic, giving the song a sound that would be mimicked by dozens of more succesful, yet less talented 90's bands.
"New Day Rising" is like if "Zen Arcade" were reduced to one album, and it was all their more straightforward punk songs. This album is very 'to-the-point', opening with "New Day Rising", something that sounds like a hardcore song, yet would be welcome on any of Husker Du's alternative albums. From there you go into "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill", "I Apologize", "Books About UFO's" and the albums masterpeice, "Celebrated Summer".
Not only is "Celebrated Summer" an absolute classic song, one that I revere for its great melody, and lyrics about summer like, "Getting drunk out on a beach/or playing in a band" that I can relate so many summers to, but this seems to predict every early 90's band's sound as well. We have acoustic guitar quiet openers, distortion coming in halfway through the verse, and the chorus is a joyously loud outburst of energy. The Pixies did not invent 'quiet-LOUD-quiet', in fact on the posters they used to hang up when they were looking for a bassist, they stated their main two influences as Husker Du, and Peter Paul and Mary. Listening to 'New Day Rising', it's fairly obvious that it's an extremely rough, lost Pixies album, with more of a punk influence.
'New Day Rising' has the same sound as 'Zen Arcade', but where they make it really count, is immediacy. The only truly skippable tracks are the last two noise songs, and every once in a while I'll let them close out the album, they're not bad, it's just the rest of the album completely eclipses them. This is Husker Du at their prime, and one of the best 'alternative' albums of the 80's.
91/100