Hot Wax

Grant Hart - Hot Wax (Con D'or Records / MVD Audio)I used to love Husker Du. I saw them at the old Marquee on their New Day Rising tour. In fact I spent a large chunk of the evening with my old chum, the late John Peel, explaining just how great Husker Du were (not that he needed much telling), and needless to say they were absolutely on fire that night.Of course, when the band broke up in 1987, songwriters Grant Hart and Bob Mould fell out and the fussin' and a feudin' begun. As far as I know, it's never stopped. Personally, I didn't pick sides. I liked what they both contributed to Husker Du, and I occasionally (and enthusiastically) dipped into both their solo recordings.Hart's latest, Hot Wax, is his sixth solo release, and like everything else he's done, he can't help but bring his exceptional pop aptitude to the project. The man's understanding of how a tune works and how hooks get under the skin is unsurpassed in what we laughingly call alternative music.The collection kicks of with "You're The Reflection Of The Moon In The Water", a title inspired by a comment made by a monk during the selection process to find the next Pachen Lhama (and Hart's love and devotion for Patti Smith), and it's a beautifully gutsy, unrefined rock `n' roll song, underpinned with what sounds like a meaty Hammond organ, though I couldn't find one credited. Anyhow, think The Band if they'd looked East instead of West, and got cranked up on bathtub speed.Next up; "Barbara" is a far gentler affair, with an arrangement and instrumentation that George Martin could instantly identify with. "Narcissus, Narcissus" carries on Hart's interest in the ancients, mythology and rockabilly - honestly, the man's a genius - and "California Zephyr" and "My Regrets" are the sort of no-holds-barred power pop that Foo Fighters fill the world's stadia with.Undoubtedly a cohesive and brilliantly entertaining collection, which might just be the best things he's done on his own. I'd certainly have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who hadn't heard Hart before. 9/10.

Great album, even though not as creative and original as he was in Nova Mob and Huesker Due times. Better than most of the music industry's general output but the expectations are very high given his catalogue. Pity I missed him live in London. Saw him a couple of years ago and it was great

The five stars are for 'Schoolbuses Are For Children'; a song that manages to encapsulate all that is special about Hart's song writing and delivery; his ability to allude to the most intimate experience of the human condition and to that same condition spread over the vastest macrocosmic canvas; its meaning isn't plain; the sense that it conveys is! People, you have to understand that Grant hart is a poet in the most venerable tradition!The rest of the album actually grows in stature with repeated hearings over a long period (it's one of those albums you don't notice as a whole until it's crept up on you over a prolonged period of, well, not playing it very often! ... i.e. the best kind of album). Take 'Barbara' for an example; it's so sharp and well observed that on first hearing you think, '... Ah, that's clever, and neat ... don't know if I'll play it much though ...' but the timing of the deeply muffled bass drum stroke and brushing /scraping of the cymbal catch you more and more with each listen. Or, take California Zephyr; so well written and performed that the first time you hear it, you barely register it because it sounds so familiar; but then, any amount of time later, you realise it's Archetypal in the beauty of it's melodies AND the performance and delivery; it really is Chuck Berry, Marty Robbins, The Shangri-Las, The Elevators and Phil Spector's trial-hair all at once!So there you are; it isn't 'Good News For Modern Man' Hart's single greatest album, but it will wipe the floor with many an album that you thought you liked better on first acquaintance!

I love Husker Du, I love Nova Mob but I do not love this rag tag bag of bits and pieces. For me, this is a rough demo of unfinished songs, ideas not fleshed out, snippets of genius marred by the lack of quality contol. The production is woeful too as almost every song has a bad fade in and fade out. This is so apparent on the 3rd song, Charles Hollis Jones where it fades in so gently to suddenly be ramped up fast as if someone forgot it needed to be faded in quicker.Ok, so the opener, You're the Reflection of the Moon on the Water is a great song. A rocker of a song with a heavy hammond sound that reminds me more of The Doors than anything in Harts past repertoire. Barbara is just plain awful and is skipped every time. The aforementioned Charles Hollis Jones is a decent effort too except the awful fade in. After that it all fades into a blur of half-baked songs with little or no hart (sic).All in all this isn't a good album at all.