Blue Hearts is a cry of purifying anger in a dark time, and its heat produces a truly necessary light; it's one of the very best solo albums Mould has given us to date.
Bob Mould's Blue Hearts, his fourteenth solo album, is a concert captured in an album, live-sounding songs relentlessly flowing into each other, leaving the listener feeling like they just got off of a water park racing slide that was accidentally overfilled.
A Candy Apple Grey with shades of Black Sheets Of Rain, Bob Mould's ninth album of this century plays with a familiar musical palette, but the Sugar man's rep as the post-hardcore Macca remains similarly solid as he closes on 60.
Blue Hearts finds him upping the ante yet again.
While it’s easy to lament the environment from which Blue Hearts has come, Mould demands more. He reminds listeners that everybody has a voice. Use them.
Blue Hearts is a punk protest, and the most Mould has taken this direct in close to 40 years, but it also brings in his alt-rock sound and his heightened sense of songwriting.
Blue Hearts is ideal fodder for smashing in the news channel to.
Mould’s been especially prolific of late, with a new release every other year or so over the past decade. That makes Blue Hearts less a surprise, but still more than any obligatory offering.
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