Everything Falls Apart and More

by

Hüsker Dü

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I've noticed that when it comes to talking about Husker Du's records, critics tend to label the "Everything Falls Apart" EP as dispensable and if you were gonna look to this for another "Makes No Sense At All" or "Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill", then just forget about it. But if you're looking for a dose of decent to great midwestern hardcore punk, you've come to the right place. The members of Husker Du may try to down play their origins now, but when they started they were a pretty good hardcore punk act and that's how they caught the attention of SST Records and if they weren't on SST they quite possibly would have faded into obscurity in Minnesota. This disc is actually a combination of the "Everything Falls Apart" EP (originally released on the band's Reflex label), the "In A Free Land" EP (originally on the Minutemen's New Alliance imprint) and the group's debut 7" (again, on Reflex), along with a couple unreleased songs from their early days. The only song on here that might give an indication of where the band was heading is "Everything Falls Apart". The two unreleased tracks, Greg Norton's "Let's Go Die" and Bob Mould's "Do You Remember?" are great. Beyond that, you got some great songs, like "In A Free Land" and "Everything Falls Apart", and handful of decent to good ones, and some you might end up skipping over, particularly the songs from the first single. "Statues" starts out ok, but then goes on forever and "Amusement" just didn't leave much of an impression with me.

The packaging is also very nice. Besides recording and discography details for music on the disc, it also features liner notes from Terry Katzman, the group's early soundman and partner in Reflex Records.

Perhaps not an essential disc, it'll still make an excellent addition to any punk rock CD collection.

If you are curious about Husker Du, I would recommend buying "Metal Circus" or anything recorded after that. However, if you are interested in the band's formative years, this collection should satisfy. It basically consists of better-than-average ("From The Gut", "Blah, Blah, Blah", "In A Free Land", "Everything Falls Apart"), average ("Wheels", "Target", "Let's Go Die"), and totally forgetable ("Punch Drunk", "Bricklayer", "Statues") early-eighties hardcore. By the time "Zen Arcade" was recorded, Bob and Grant had matured considerably as songwriters. However, even if Husker Du's later material far outdistances the music on this collection, it's still worth adding to your collection, in my opinion.