Bob Mould
Silver Age
Merge
Rating: 
Bob Mould is back where many of his most ardent fans want him: fronting an airtight power-pop trio and wielding his guitar like a tommy gun. He’s got some ace players behind him, too, in Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster and Split Single and Telekinesis bassist Jason Narducy. On Silver Age, they crank out ten lean speed burners that reach back to Mould’s late-eighties Hüsker Dü and earlynineties Sugar modes, while embracing more straight-ahead pop moves than either of those bands ever did. “Star Machine” and “Silver Age” get things off to a kinetic start, and the energy never flags through the epic thump of “Steam of Hercules” and the rueful “Round the City Square.” Album closers “Keep Believing” and “First Time Joy,” in both their titles and tone, sum up the record: This is the sound of a man reinvigorated, and reveling in it.
