Numero Group has done it again.
Just when you think you’ve heard the last word on Hüsker Dü’s back catalogue, Numero Group comes along with 1985 – The Miracle Year. It’s a stunning two-disc set of concert performances from when the band were in their prime. They were touring to promote Zen Arcade and, after this tour, would go on to release two more classics: New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig. They would start recording Candy Apple Grey later that same year.
The first disc is a rare recording of a full show at Minneapolis’ First Avenue club recorded in January 1985. It was slated to be released as an album back then, but it never materialized and the tapes sat for forty years in storage. Thankfully, they emerged and have been remastered and released for all of us.
Hearing this show now instantly makes your jaw drop. Starting off with “New Day Rising,” they stomp the gas and almost never let off it for the whole show. They’re angry and fierce on “It’s Not Funny Anymore” and “Everything Falls Apart.” Even “The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill” has extra doses of punk rage in it.
Other great cuts include “Makes No Sense at All,” “Books About UFOs,” and the blazing “Broken Home Broken Heart.” “Pink Turns to Blue” is a great encore piece, as are “Out on a Limb” (with Grant Hart thudding out a primal beat almost as a challenge to the audience still left standing) and the wild cover songs from the set: “Eight Miles High” (The Byrds), “Helter Skelter” (a perfect song for them to perform as Greg Norton and Bob Mould trade punk rage vocals and screams), “Ticket to Ride” (The Beatles), and “Love Is All Around” (Sonny Curtis).
Disc two is a collection of other live cuts from 1985 and begins with a blistering version of “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely.” “Hardly Getting Over It” is another good one with sharp guitar work by Mould. “Eiffel Tower High” is a great inclusion, and one you rarely hear. The same goes for “All Work and No Play,” which features great double vocals.
Their cover of Donovan‘s “Sunshine Superman” is always welcome, and the Hoboken crowd goes crazy for it. Several of the final tracks are audience requests, such as “In a Free Land,” the title track to Flip Your Wig, and even an instrumental (“The Wit and the Wisdom”) that nearly burns down the Frankfurt venue.
It all sounds great, and the first disc alone will put you right back into 1985. Bring your earplugs.
Keep your mind open.
[I’m looking for the miracle of your subscription.]
[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]
