Turmoil traditionally results in Bob Mould’s best work. Judging from Patch the Sky, the 55-year-old ex-Hüsker Dü frontman must’ve undergone the worst depression of his life. “I’ve had a solid stretch of hard emotional times,” he acknowledges in a monograph accompanying this 12th solo disc, cataloging “more death, relationships ending, life getting shorter.” Results including “Lucifer and God” and instant classic “The End of Things” equal Mould’s most melodically explosive punk rock since his Eighties heyday in Minneapolis, all abrasive guitar work and barbed lyricism candy-coated by tunefulness. (Bob Mould plays Sound on Sound Fest Nov. 6.)

***.5

This article appears in August 12 • 2016.

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Tim Stegall contributed to The Austin Chronicle 1991-1995, and was a staff writer 1995-1997. He returned as a contributor in 2013. He has also freelanced for publications ranging from Flipside to Alternative Press to Guitar World. He plays punk rock guitar and sings in the Hormones.