"A great look back at Sugar (i.e. Bob Mould & the handpicked men) over at Stylus.":http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/sugar-file-under-easy-listening.htmIt focuses on
File Under: Easy Listening (often abbreviated
FU:EL) but really nails the strange coolness of the Sugar experience. My own reaction to the album is below (inspired by the re-review;the hindsight on this album is appropriately examined through the lens of Mould's own personality- nice job). For me, my memories and initial feelings compete a bit with what I now know of Mould. When I first bought Copper Blue I was 14 and liked to pick up anything that my friends weren't. I liked the strangely uniform chaos it tunneled through; which made me interested but always a little disappointed in FU:EL that it floated so far into the ultrapop waters. I learned to love it for what it was, but given that we were teased with a blistering Beaster in-between, it's no wonder new fans are so confused by the two LP's and EP. A great example of that is the weird FU:EL B-Sides compilation, Besides, which also came with a very sloppy and unfulfilling live CD The Joke Is Always On Us...Sometimes which made me feel like the joke was quite possibly on me. Many moons later I still look fondly on the exercise that was Sugar, and the enjoyment some tracks still stir. In some ways I wish he'd look at music that way again- because of that weird conservative but experimental flavor he was bringing at the time (even if it was a result of frustration and ego). It made him seem a bit more playful than the larger pendulum swings that Bowie was taking during the same years, and it was a neat playground to watch, if not enjoy.-Dean
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