Grant Hart

The Argument (Domino)

Hüsker Dü was a partnership or a rivalry depending on your POV. Two restless Midwestern auteurs, charismatic control freak Bob Mould and hardcore melodic Grant Hart, stoked a competition during the trio’s legendary run in the Eighties that guaranteed the absence of a reunion tour even 30 years later. Mould secured a luminescent solo career afterward, while Hart remained largely absent, save for a lot of brooding interviews. Clocking in at 74 minutes and sporting a weighty, Paradise Lost-inspired concept, The Argument exists perhaps solely to quash those notions, yet it mirrors Hüsker Dü’s epic meticulousness. Hart welcomes Satan with a carnival ukulele on “Underneath the Apple Tree,” and what better inspiration for a clear-eyed anthem than Adam and Eve streaking out of Eden (“Run For the Wilderness”)? As with most LPs of this density, momentum lapses between set-pieces, but The Argument‘s ambition demands respect, if only to pay dues to a man who waited 25 years to write his All Things Must Pass.

***.5

This article appears in September 6 • 2013.

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