Beaster - Sugar (Rock) > Reviews > Come Around to this extraordinary record

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	-
Disadvantages:	not for the squeamish

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Been dumped lately? Hate everything and everybody? Or just had a crap day at work and want to let it all out? Well, here’s just the ticket. A nasty, noisy, snarling brute of an album that will grab hold of you, spin you round and round, tip you upside down and bang you a few times on the head before throwing you into a heap on the carpet, fleeing into the night like a thief stealing treasure.

Sugar were Bob Mould's follow on after the break up of the Minneapolis band Husker Du, 1980's noise-merchants par excellence. This followed the outstanding album "Copper Blue" in 1992 and the songs here were recorded during those sessions. However, whereas "Copper Blue"'s tone was mainly upbeat, the exact opposite is true of this set, so it should be seen as a companion piece to that album, in much the same way that "Insomniac" by Radiohead followed "Kid A".

The guitar here is tuned down so low that it manages to make Nirvana's "In Utero" sound positively melodic, no mean feat indeed. Yes, the vibe really is that much bottom-end…don't know about grunge rock, but I'd call this sludge-rock. The songs cover difficult subject matter too, with references to drugs, religion and the break up of relationships. As you may have already gathered, this is not for the faint hearted amongst you...............the technical bit now, please take notice at the back there: Released April 1993 on Creation Records, classified as a "mini album"......line up of Bob Mould (guitars, vocals, keyboards, percussion) David Barbe (bass) and Malcolm Travis (drums, percussion)....produced by Bob Mould and Lou Giordano. Every music mag I was reading in those days went totally mental for this during and after its release.

Come Around opens this mini-album up, consisting of a droning looped guitar with the grim chanting "come….come around" throughout, brimming with controlled menace, setting the scene perfectly for what is to follow. Which arrives in the shape of Tilted, a full on thrash with vocals fighting to get themselves heard over throbbing guitar work. "I only do these things to freak you out, I never wanted you to doubt me", yells Bob. A bizarre sermon follows over 30 seconds of feedback.

As your head starts to throb, we enter the extremely heavy section of this record with Judas Cradle, which sounds to me like backward looped guitars over a punishing riff, leading to a memorable mid section....."My hands......mean nothing....to me!" More droning guitars over some pretty impressive drum work too.

If you think that was heavy going, along comes the pulverising JC Auto, surely the musical equivalent of the 21st Panzer Division driving through your front room. Good heavens this is an awesome number, where Mould gets to spit out bile in chunks. "I'm your Jesus Christ, I look like Jesus Christ, I know I know", along with "I've done my share of drugs, they kept me down, I've done my share of speed, it kept me up", another massive down-tuned riff alternating between up-key and down-key changes throughout, with the rest of the band frantically trying to keep up. Rock music that doesn't ask if you're fighting by the Queensberry Rules, it just kicks you right in the balls instead.

Feeling Better would not have been out of place on Copper Blue, an almost singalong number with a nifty bit of bass work popping in and out regularly. Don't think that the muscial intensity has dropped though; this sonic temple is still well and truly open for business. Instead of "feeling better", you should be throughly wrung out and exhausted from listening to this so far.

As you lie metaphorically battered and bleeding on the floor, Sugar deliver the coup de grace with Walking Away, a beautiful church organ is the only instrument on here as Bob sings "walking away back to you, I do, walking away back to you, what more can I say, I'm walking away" over and over until it suddenly jars to a stop. I think the jist of it is that he is burying all the pain of the last six songs here, putting it finally to rest. Amen to that, brother.

A CD that I definately have to be in the mood to put on, and thank goodness it is only 30 minutes too because it is a really punishing listen, you won't find too much in the way of melody or musicianship here, (try Copper Blue for that), but it is an incredible sound of anger being vented. And a lovely yukky cover too, don't worry it's only a bit of rope really. So to the rating. Whilst the sheer intensity shown here is worth 5 stars alone, musically it's only worth 3 stars - not a lot of actual tunes going on, and I like albums with tunes. Alright then 4 stars it is - but you have been warned….