Last year, amid rumors of internal dissension and substance abuse, Hüsker Dü did a supernova, and the experience appears to have left everyone involved a little dazed and confused. For a solo EP released several months after the breakup, drummer Grant Hart recorded a bitter toast to his band mates called "2541," named
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after the address of a Minneapolis studio where the band often worked. "Now everything is over," he sang angrily over an arrangement of muted drums and sloppy guitars. "Everything is done/Everything's in boxes/At 2541."
Apparently, Hart isn't the only one who feels stung by the experience. Bob Mould, the band's guitarist, opens his irate first solo album, Workbook, with a lyrical acoustic-guitar instrumental that wouldn't sound out of place on a Leo Kottke album, and later on he sings, "I knew that this would happen sooner or later/That I'd get disillusioned with it all/ Just throw my hands up to the sky and say/Oh, Lord, what happened/What happened to make things run this way?"
Clearly, this isn't the same Bob Mould who, Gibson Flying V slung near his hip, spewed out buckshot riffs and, with Hart and bassist Greg Norton, made Hüsker Dü the preeminent thrash-pop band of this decade. But as Mould reminds himself on Workbook, "All the words we said yesterday/That's a long time ago." An album obsessed with shattered expectations and bitter accusations, Workbook is not an upbeat record – nor should it be, given the circumstances of the Hüskers' breakup. Instead, Workbook is the recorded equivalent of the first hint of fall slapping you in the face after a particularly torrid summer.
Mould must have realized that any attempt to recreate the Hüskers' propulsive drive would have been foolhardy, because he hasn't really tried. Instead, he's lowered the volume switch on his guitars and – with a small backup band consisting of Golden Palominos drummer Anton Fier, Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone and cellist Jane Scarpantoni (of the Hoboken, New Jersey, band Tiny Lights) – created an airy, panoramic sound that makes Hüsker attempts at chamber pop, like "Hardly Getting Over It," sound claustrophobic by comparison. Mould's snarl of a voice is as razor sharp as ever, but he's couched it in finger-picking gentility ("Heartbreak a Stranger"), sprawling guitar epics ("Lonely Afternoon," "Wishing Well") and power pop ("See a Little Light"). Throughout the album, Scarpantoni's cello shades each brooding thought perfectly.
The autumnal feel of the music is an ideal match for Mould's ambitious lyrics. Like someone jotting down notes to retrace a mistake, the stream-of-consciousness lyrics on Workbook circle around several themes. Themes of betrayal crop up repeatedly. "Sinners & Their Repentances" is an admission that Mould, too, may be guilty of sins, but by the end he is singing, "But now I can't decide/If you told the truth or you lied/Yo
