BOB MOULD - PATCH THE SKY

Released: 21/07/23

Originally released in 2016, and the third album in what Bob Mould deemed to be an unofficial trilogy (following Silver Age and Beauty & Ruin), Patch the Sky now receives the much-needed reissue treatment – and I say that as much for me personally as for the wider community of alt-rock heads. For, while being a huge Hüsker Dü and Sugar fan, I have to admit that Mould’s work under his own name has until now, for whatever reason, not really been on my radar – and don’t I feel the silly billy. For Patch the Sky has the thing I loved about Sugar’s Copper Blue – viz., stone-cold classic fuzzed-out hooks up the wazoo – but also a deeper emotional side, such as on the terrific ‘Hold on to Me’, which evokes classic Hüsker Dü tracks such as ‘Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely’. 

If I have one minor gripe about Sugar, it was that that occasionally some songs suffered from a too-clean, made-for-radio production, but on Patch the Sky there is a wonderful feeling of a band playing live in a studio, Mould taking advantage of the considerable skills and live experience of drummer (and comedy legend) Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats) and bassist Jason Narducy of Split Single – serving beautifully the rawness and kinetic energy of Mould’s phenomenal songwriting.