District Line

Bob Mould: Circle of Friends - Live at the 9:30 Club	Vagabonds Gary Louris has shown pop-star eager earmarks since 1989, when his endearing "Baltimore Sun" cracked the honky-tonk playlist that was the Jayhawks' sophomore record, Blue Earth. While Louris dipped his toe in a pop direction after Jayhawks co-founder Mark Olson departed in 1995, ...	Distortion	Blowoff Bob Mould has tried for years to reconcile his love for melodic and noisy rock music with his interest in dance-based music. Both 2002's Modulate and 2005's Body of Song teamed Mould's signature vocals and taste for mini-anthems with percolating electronics, but both had structur...	Lucky
Another Country	Greatest Hits Limited edition International 2 CD version is set to include a bonus disc with eight live tracks. Universal. 2008.	Angels of Destruction If Marah were ever to rewrite its resume, it should begin with three words: "soul," "chaos," and, most notably, "reinvention." Led by ex-Philadelphia siblings Dave and Serge Bielanko, the band has never shied away from tinkering with either its sound or lineup. While the results ...	Body of Song	Rain (w/ bonus DVD) When Joe Jackson went into a Berlin studio with the rhythm section thathad accompanied him off and on for nearly three decades (and helpedmake the classics Look Sharp, I'm the Man and Beat Crazy) he had themost strikingly simple line-up in mind: just piano, bass, drums and hisown...

Breaking The "Mould"
Finally, the return of good old fashioned rock & roll. Bob Mould's "District Line" is an amazing album. A great blend of poppy alternative rock that should apeal to just about everyone. Don't know how to describe his music.. I guess it's kind of similar (to me anyway)to maybe early Pearl Jam & Brain Adams stuff. I know that's kinda a wide range, but I found similarities in both. All in all it's just well produced, good music all the way through. I can't say there was even a track on the entire album that I didn't like with track 5 being my favorite. I think this album's definately gonna do well giving the Rock/Alternative genre the long over due shot in the arm that they both respectively deserve to return them to their former glory & get rid of this winey, punk (junk) that's so popular on the radio today. Anyhow, check it out & I think you'll enjoy it.

Bob's seen better days
This weak effort is not a return to form. The songs are lousy and Bob's attempts at mixing rock and electronic music is awful. The effects on his vocals are a joke. It sounds like Cher from a few years back. I grew up on Husker du and Sugar but unfortunately Bob is a shell of his former self.

Good, Not Great, Mould
My favorite Bob Mould album is his acoustic tour-de-force Workbook, so the new collection, "District Line", has a little too many layers of sound for me. Still, it's very listenable and if you are a fan you will probably want this. I especially liked the tracks "Return to Dust" and "Very Temporary." One of the other reviewers called this album "power pop", and that's as fair a description as any.

I wanted to like it, but just can't
I remember first hearing Husker Du, and later Sugar, and being blown away. I've always retained a soft spot for Bob Mould since his Husker Du days, through thick and through thin. This album just doesn't measure up to any of his past work. The album is, simply put, overproduced. I'm positive that's a drum machine lurking back there. Where are my swirling melodies? Where are the lush yet somehow jangling guitars? Where's the album that I want to remember and make all of my friends listen to? How is it that I didn't realise that I'd listened to six separate songs until I glanced up at my CD player to see what track it was on? It all sounds the same. There are some hints of what I used to love here. "Walls in Time" has a melody that at least doesn't sound like the rest of the album, and "The Silence Between Us" gives me some of that guitar that I had been waiting to hear. If you're new to Bob Mould, this is not the right place to start. I'd go for Sugar's first album, Copper Blue, or maybe Husker Du's Zen Arcade. Both are strong albums that show you what Bob Mould is capable of. This album is only for the Mould completist.

Nearly as dull and polished as a typical D.C. politician
I was pretty jazzed when I saw that Bob Mould's latest CD, "District Line," was being offered on Amazon's Vine Program. After all, Mould is a legend whose work I really respect. Even if his commercially popular days are over (if he ever even had any), I still look forward to everything this guy puts out. Unfortunately, it seems to me that Mould's discs are getting more mundane with each release. Gone are the days of his glazed-over, multi-tracked voice that used to so perfectly blend into a melodic swirl of frantic, raging guitar chords. In place of that is Mould's au naturel voice heard over some by-the-numbers track he wrote, produced and mixed by himself, because that seems to be the way he likes to operate. At least Mould's organic singing voice is superior to when he processes it through some cheesy vocoder that was hip in the 1990s. Some songs and moments on "District Line" show flashes of Mould's past greatness: "Who Needs to Dream" is a decent mid-tempo rocker with a touch of melody and a ghost of a guitar solo; "The Silence Between Us" possesses a good chorus and genuine guitar grit that's impressive; "Miniature Parade" and the heartfelt closer, "Walls in Time," are also pretty catchy tunes. Most of the tunes on "District Line," though, are either unmemorable or substandard retreads of what's been heard on past Mould solo albums. "Return to Dust," for example, is a complete carbon-copy of a past Mould tune from an older CD, though I can't recall which one. This stuff is simply plainer, more polished and, strangest of all, less melodic than the heady days of Sugar or Mould's other `90s work. One to the next, these slickly produced songs plow ahead without much distinction or, unbelievably, any memorable hooks. Mould's musical vision has become too lazy and singular. He should collaborate with others, perhaps get back with the guys in Sugar to liven things up and bring in some ragged danger. This CD lacks the top-notch songs and edge heard on The Last Dog & Pony Show and Bob Mould, and it fails to break any new ground like the unique Modulate did, though "Shelter Me" is a dance-worthy track that strays from Mould's typical guitar gusto. As far as where "District Line" ranks with Sugar classics like Copper Blue and Beaster, forget about it. While those albums made your pulse pound, this one comes off as sterile and empty. Glad I got it for free...