Husker Du- "Zen Arcade"

Husker Du
"Zen Arcade"
SST Records
1984

You and a couple dudes start a punk band. You play as fast as your uppers and muscles will allow you. You release a shitty sounding live album, some more punk records, tour relentlessly. What's next on the list? Hmmm, how about lock yourself away in an abandoned church in Minnesota and construct a double concept album about a fucked up kid finding religion, drugs, comfort in his own homosexuality after leaving home, and coming to realize things are all fucked up no matter what? If any of my friends told me this was to be their path, I'd have a chuckle and say "good luck making that piece of shit, guys."

Instead, that's what Husker Du did in 1984, releasing a pretentiously overloaded piece of punk coneptuality (a word? well it is now). "Zen Arcade" is the classic double LP, 23 song overload from the same band who brought you the blink-and-you'll-miss-it fury of songs like "Punch Drunk" and "Let's Go Die," some two years earlier. Okay, "Zen Arcade" still retains moments of incredible speed, and as an extremely angry record, but with a barge load of ideas and daring experiments thrown into what was still a tight minded community in many ways. This is the first true kitchen-sink punk album. Perhaps most importantly, the melodic leanings began to shine in both Bob Mould's and Grant Hart's combative song writing efforts that shape "Zen Arcade."

Like their "Everything Falls Apart" LP, the album opens with marching-esque drum rolls, but ones that sound like their moving forward rather than trying to make and immediate statement. Mould's guitar work on said opener, "Something I Learned Today," is also filled with melodic jabs; immediate as fuck, yet toe-tapping. Mould's best punk song to that point, until possibly later in the album.

From there, we're bombarded with bitter acoustic folk (Hart's "Never Talking to You Again"), tape loop interludes ("Dreams Reoccurring"), patience-trying psychedelia ("Hare Krisna"), scalding hardcore ("Beyond the Threshold," "Pride"), creepy bass-driven sea shanties ("Standing by the Sea"), arena-worthy punk rock ("Turn on the News"), and piano cuts straight from the credits of an after-school special, but with soap opera titles ("One Step at a Time," "Monday will Never be the Same"). And after all that, how do they wrap it up? With a 14 fucking minute, 2-track recording of free noise association, glued together with a repeating guitar and bass lines that fade into an extended frequency, until the needle falls off the groove.

Is it all a punk opera? I don't know, but if it is it's actually a good rock opera. Honestly, I don't know what the full narrative is. If over the years I'd read it was a Kafkian tale about a mailman who turned into a dog in an ironic twist of fate, I'd buy that. Bottom line, "Zen Arcade" is a fucking mess. It makes no sense. There's too much bullshit stacked on top of more bullshit. It's more unorganized that "The White Album" (and that album's a pop junkyard). It was recorded AND mixed in 80 straight hours and it shows. AND, IT'S AMAZING.

One of the most astounding albums in punk history, that gets better with age. One of those rare records that manages to be an oddity and a masterpiece. Thank God the Huskers were all fucked up on drugs at this point, 'cause they'd probably try and do something foolish like release 2 more amazing albums in the next 14 months. Oh, wait.

9/10