|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Drummer Grant Hart had co-written, with Bob Mould, the final masterpieces of Husker Du (Diane, What's Going On, Turn On The News, The Girl Who Leaves On Heaven Hill, Books About UFO, Green Eyes, Don't Want To Know, Tell You Why, Charity Chastity).
Fired in December 1987, he released an EP, 2541 (SST), which confirmed Harts knack for melody (both the title track and the martial Fanfare In D Major), but did not foreshadow the heartfelt solipsism of his first solo album, Intolerance (SST, 1989), performed entirely solo and largely on organ. The moving elegy of She Can See The Angels Coming, the solemn anthem of All Of My Senses, and the sad melody of Now That You Know Me are emblematic of the sense of anguish and fatalism Hart imbues in this work.
Leading a power trio (Nova Mob), Hart then wrote the ambitious rock opera Last Days Of Pompeii (Rough Trade, 1991), in which his limitations as a guitarist became apparent. Only the catchiest choruses survive, such as the title track, Admiral Of The Sea (reworked from the original single) and Wernher Von Braun.
He fared better with the single Shoot Your Way To Freedom, from his second album Nova Mob (Restless, 1994), returning to the power-pop vein of the late Husker Du.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
All in all, Grant Hart has remained more faithful to Husker Du's power-pop
than his more famous buddy Bob Mould. The Phil Spector-ian wall-of-sound
arrangements of Hart's second solo album,
Good News For Modern Man (Pachyderm, 2000), eleven years after the
first one,
detract a bit from the sorrowful ballads. One feels that Hart is
trying to distance himself from his past and from Mould, but smothering
his poetry in "noise" may not be the most productive way to do it.
However, at least
Think It Over Now, Run Run Run To The Centre Pompidou
and Little Nemo boast superb melody and orchestration.
In A Cold House also shows some emotions.
Hart's problem has always been how to "dress up" his melodic hooks. He is
not adept at writing profound lyrics, and is not enough of a composer to
stretch beyond the refrain-based ditty. Here he finds shelter in grandiose
rock arrangements.
Hart died in 2017.
|
