Copper Blue

Confession time. Several years back (12 to be precise), in the days of 'A Customer' I wrote a review of this album on this very page. It went like this...

'If you never thought heavy rock music could be melodic then you should buy this album and be amazed. From the out and out rock of The Act We Act to the sheer delight of Man In The Moon this album will enthrall and delight. The heavy numbers such as The Slim grow but the instant access numbers such as If I Can't Change Your Mind, Changes, Helpless and Hoover Dam never become tiresome. At times Bob Mould sounds like Sting during the best Police songs (Particularly Changes). What came after paled into comparison. Not because it wasn't equally excellent but because it never delivered on each and every song with each and every note like this. Husker Du may have died but the more melodic, accesable Sugar overshadowed them. When Nirvana and company were inventing themselves the originator out-thought them all and delivered a never to be forgotten classic.'

Yes, that was me and its still here. And now, twenty years after I first purchased it (on cassette) there is a deluxe version to celebrate those twenty years. Twelve years later its still my favourite album. In fact this week I get the thrill of seeing Bob perform the whole thing live. It still gets played a hell of a lot. Its not diminished over the years. The album itself is here and is as fantastic as it ever was. Complete with B sides. Clownmaster is as fantastic as ever as an acoustic B side (even better on the live CD). There are also radio 1 sessions which includes the perennial favourite Diamonds Are Halo's - which I have always loved and its fab here as well. The whole concert is the tour de force Sugar were live at the time. Don't get me wrong they could be bad live (I am dreading the Finsbury Park extras on Beaster - I was there and it wasn't pretty). But this is a pretty great live set. Add in the interviews (dull and un-engaging), the promo's and the late show performance - one of my favourite from the No Alternative Late Show that was shown at the time. Its a pretty good deluxe version. It also has a booklet with all the key players contributing. Telling the story of the band and this album. I am very happy to upgrade to this version.

My review of 2000 is still true. This package is well done. If you haven't heard Copper Blue then you really should. Its the sound of a band outdoing those around them. This was album of the year for a reason. If you know this album then you should upgrade to this version. There is enough here to reward you and it gives you a reason to listen again to one of the true masterpieces of the grunge era.

If you never thought heavy rock music could be melodic then you should buy this album and be amazed. From the out and out rock of The Act We Act to the sheer delight of Man In The Moon this album will enthrall and delight. The heavy numbers such as The Slim grow but the instant access numbers such as If I Can't Change Your Mind, Changes, Helpless and Hoover Dam never become tiresome. At times Bob Mould sounds like Sting during the best Police songs (Particularly Changes). What came after paled into comparison. Not because it wasn't equally excellent but because it never delivered on each and every song with each and every note like this. Husker Du may have died but the more melodic, accesable Sugar overshadowed them. When Nirvana and company were inventing themselves the originator out-thought them all and delivered a never to be forgotten classic.

After the demise of the once-mighty Husker Du, Bob Mould’s musical career hit rough times. Arguments with record companies broke out, a series of patchy solo releases followed and it seemed that the most venerable founding-father of post-punk and alternative rock (whatever “alternative rock” means since “alternative” IS now the mainstream) was adrift. Even despite having achieved some critical success for his solo work, commercial success never came and Mould’s search for musical fulfilment was not yielding many answers.

When “Copper Blue” was released at the very apex of the rave era, the nation was wringing its hands over all things to do with music “characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” and the music press was obsessing over the handbag-hardcore schism. Only a few people sat up and listened to the news that Mould was back.

There’s no doubting that Creation Records (and of course Rykodisc, Sugar’s US label) knew they had something remarkable in their hands. But when the roar, power and heartbreaking intricacy of Bob Mould’s wall-of-guitar had reached such exquisite fruition as on this magical album, word soon began to spread: Bob Mould was back, Back, BACK and had served the ace that everyone thought he might one day be capable of.

Creation was, of course, still “only” an indie label and did not have an enormous corporate promotion budget to throw at it. Coming hot on the heels of Mould’s solo career and having none of the youth, boyish looks or swaggering gobbiness of the other big-noise bands of the time, Sugar were still a risky proposition. And to add to that Sugar’s idea of “not playing the corporate game”, which did not mean growing their hair long, delivering emotionally incontinent rants about The Man or trying to out-do each other’s chemical consumption; neither did it mean looking glum and moody. It just meant standing around looking like ordinary guys and not really saying too much … so their PR people had a tough job.

And yet, if I remember rightly, this album stayed in the top 5 of the UK indie charts for maybe 18 months. Up against Primal Scream’s “Screamadelica” or Nirvana’s “Nevermind” that alone is a truly awesome feat. It only takes one listen to figure out why. Listening to it as I write, 11 years later and possibly for the 200th time, it still feels as if I’m hearing it for the first time. The rush, the bliss, the noise, the angst, the adrenaline and the unimaginably glorious melodies that defy the imagination are all there; but now I’m older, it’s the maturity, the class and the depth that keep pulling me back, even if I still don’t understand how Mould gets his guitar to sound like that.

Truly, there are barely a handful of records in my collection (of well-over 4,000 records) that have hooked themselves so deeply into my brain as this and I’m not even particularly a heavy-guitar, grunge or rock type. It’s tempting to go through this record, track-by-track, offering some kind of critical analysis of what I think makes it so dazzling, so brilliant, so iconic. It would be simple to spew-forth a eulogy on the lyrics, effuse about the chord progressions, swoon repeatedly over the guitar solos or quiver uncontrollably about the perfect segueing between the tracks but it’s more satisfying to consider the overall, overwhelming effect.

This is an album to be consumed whole and as with all great art, it is enormously greater than the sum of its parts. It’s just completely and utterly fabulous. I’ll still be listening to it in another decade and I hope you will be too.