Comments for Husker Du, Warehouse: Songs and Stories

While it may not be their "standout after standout" record, "Warehouse" covers the most territory and leaves you the most emotionally drained at the end. Songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart spin tales about people and relationships at the end of their respective ropes, but with just enough hope to make it worth trying one more time. "Ice Cold Ice," "She Floated Away," "Up In the Air," and many others are standouts.

This is the album that turned me onto Husker Du, and personally, I don't think I could've had a better introduction. A sprawling double album that displays all the sides of one of the most important bands of our time. Sadly, this album was their swan song.

Dubbed "Warehouse:Songs and Stories" after where the band developed and recorded the 20 songs on the album, Husker Du's farewell is a barrage of thoughts and ideas blended beautifully together with great musicianship. Hart and Mould wrote some amazing songs on this album, including "These Important Years", "No Reservations", "Up in the Air", etc. etc.,.

'Warehouse' is one of the best LPs ever made, in my opinion. Husker were one of those rare bands who just got better and better with each successive release. The guitars zang and spark with electrical energy, Hart's drumming is sharper and more pointed than ever, and Greg's bass growls and roars in less than obvious ways. But more than this, the songs ....! There's a few underlying musical themes running through this LP, a sense of overwhelming optimism, excitement/joy, only on the odd track like 'No reservations' does Mould's recurring melancholy show in his lyrics, and even then its tempered by such uplifting melodies! To play this whole LP through from beginning to end is like OD'ing on something wonderful! (Released about a year before they split, I can't help wondering, given the rate at which they wrote new stuff, well there must be about 20 unreleased post-Warehouse songs somewhere in WB's vaults???)

Several good songs on Warehouse, not enough to make a great double album. Production is an improvement over the 2 previous records, but for the first time ever, the band actually sounds kind of stiff. Cut it down to a single LP and you have a cool send-off. But Zen Arcade it is not.

Less patchy than Zen Arcade , but slightly less exciting , this emerges as their most consistently enjoyable album.Definitely in my all time top 50.

Husker Du`s second (and final) 2-LP set is in many waystheir definitive album. Hart and Mould`s songs play offeach other perfectly, and the range of influences - from folk ("Floated", "Reservations") to punk ("Soldier") to`50s rock ("Condition") to funk ("Live at Home") is stunning