1984 album in review: Husker Du--Zen Arcade

I have debated back-and-forth with myself trying to decide which 1984 album to go with next. I have finally decided on Husker Du's Zen Arcade.

The Replacements and Husker Du were two big punk/"college rock" rock bands to emerge from Minneapolis in the '80s. I "discovered" both of them in that fateful autumn of 1986 that I have mentioned more than a few times in this blog. "Discovery" is giving myself too much credit. In both cases, it was another kid in the dorm who floated an album my way. With Husker Du, it was a cassette copy of their 1986 major label debut, Candy Apple Grey.

Until about 2000, Candy Apple Grey was the only Husker Du album I owned and was completely familiar with, since up to that point I was a much bigger fan of The Replacements. For reason I can't remember now, I made the deep dive into the Husker Du discography. At the time, I worked at Borders corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor and attending graduate school in Ann Arbor's [ugly step]sister city, Ypsilanti, AND commuting from Lansing. Maybe I was looking for more music for my commute and was feeling nostalgic for stuff from my college years, which at more than a decade distant already seemed like a long time ago.

In short order, I picked up CDs of Candy Apple Grey, New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, and Zen Arcade. This might be heresy in the Husker Du community, but I prefer 1985's New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig over the more highly lauded Zen Arcade. This is not to say I don't appreciate Zen Arcade's many charms, it's just that I don't think it needed to be a double album. (The sound you hear is Husker Du fans pelting me with tomatoes). The album has plenty of excellent tracks, like the incendiary opener "Something I Learned Today," Grant Hart's folky melodic "Never Talking To You Again, and "Hare Krsna" (with it's "I Want Candy"-like vocal line). And then there is the epic 14-minute closer "Dream Recurring," which to my ears sounds like something RUSH might have recorded for 2112. (I may very well be further incurring the wrath of Husker Du fans with that statement. It is meant as a compliment--and if you don't like RUSH, get over yourselves). 

I have a complicated relationship with Zen Arcade. I'm not saying it's a bad album. Quite the contrary. It is a damned good LP and, in retrospect, has aged remarkably well over these four decades. I just question whether it needed to be a double album. I also challenge anyone to explain the "story" that is told over its 70+ minute runtime. At best, the album is 23 songs loosely tied together by an overarching theme of alienation, but with few exceptions the vocals are so buried in the mix that it's hard to make heads or tails out of many of the songs. (May the tomato pelting continue).

So, there you have it, my thoughts about Husker Du's Zen Arcade, an album I like but do not love, by a band that I truly do love.