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Nei Novanta, dopo "Black Sheets Of Rain", Bob Mould riunisce a sé il bassista David Barbe ed il drummer Malcom Travis, e forma gli Sugar, dalla breve ma intensa vita. Nel 1992 esce questo primo lavoro.
L'inizio è tutto dedito al punk melodico, ma non mieloso al punto tale da sembrare infantile. Ed alle orecchie del teenager con la cresta, non solo di quello del '92, come suonerà quest'album? Appagherà la sua voglia smodata di casino chitarristico e costestualmente di sigle di cartoons? Di certo, la voce di Mould non è certo quella di un adolescente spettinato, e di ciò l'adolescente s'avvede alla prima sillaba che gli sente cantare. S'accorgerà ben presto, in fin dei conti, che anche le cadute di stile - ovvero quelle cose che piacciono tanto ai pischelli con la cresta - , in questo lavoro sono pochine, dopo tutto. I fans degli Husker Du, invece, forse perché abituati troppo bene, al solo sentir pronunciare gli Sugar storcono il naso manco si stesse parlando dei Millencollin!
L'iniziale "The Act We Act" è un buon pezzo non scatenato con un ottimo ritornello ma un pessimo e troppo tradizionale solo chitarristico. "A Good Idea" ha una chitarra-zanzara che puoi scacciarla tutte le volte che vuoi, tanto lei torna sempre. Per inciso, la canzoncina è tanto simpatica che devi metterci uno con la faccia da ripetente ab aeterno, coi tatuaggi, coi capelli tinti di biondo platino, e non certo uno come Bob! "Changes" è un altro punk adolescenziale addolcito dai campanelli/campanacci delle renne di babbo natale. "Helpless" è l'emo: basta ascoltare il giro di chitarra iniziale. "Hoover Dam" è una bella folk song elettrificata con però, nel mezzo e nel finale, parti di tastiera che Jean Michel Jarre è un uomo cha ha gusto, al confronto. Dopo il quartetto inziale, che sarà piaciuto al teenager con la cresta, sembra proprio che l'aria si sia fatta più adult oriented. "The Slim", che parla di un'amicizia persa a causa dell'A.I.D.S., è un pezzo superbo, pur non avendo accelerazioni per la quale, anzi al contrario un arpeggio rarefatto, nel mezzo del brano. La voce di Bob non è più fuori luogo, in questi territori, anzi è la migliore possibile. Si continua con le acustiche per un brano veloce e dolce dolce dal titolo "If I Can't Change Your Mind", roba che poteva essere scritta da bands come Lemonheads o Goo Goo Dolls (e che verrà coverizzata dai lecchini del rock, ovvero i Train).
Il punk adolescenziale si rifà vivo nella sgradevole "Fortune Teller", mentre "Slick" è un ottimo rock lento e scazzato. La finale "Man On The Moon" sembra un tentativo (maldestro) di unire punk moderno a glam. Pessimo lo spazio "solo musica" a metà del brano. Peccato, visto che Bob è sempre riuscito ad andar fuori dai ranghi coi suoi brani conclusivi, uscendone però con tanto d'applausi a scena aperta (vedasino più o meno tutti i finali dei suoi dischi, e leggasino le relative recensioni, tutte fatte da me ovviamente).
Se l'obiettivo era quello di presentare un disco "tutto singoli", beh, il tentativo fallisce al brano numero 5. Da lì in poi, un adolescente con la cresta che guarda MTV non sarebbe in grado di farsi gradire i restanti pezzi, ad eccezione di "If I Can't Change Your Mind" (che sarà effettivamente singolo, assieme a tre dei quattro brani iniziali, cioè il secondo, il terzo ed il quarto), in cui però stenterà a riconoscervi una punk band all'opera. L'amante, ma che dico amante, l'intenditore, no no, meglio ancora il sommelier degli Husker Du (notate la "leggera" vena polemica?), a questo disco neanche ci si è avvicinato, scettico - a ragion veduta, secondo il suo punto di vista - a riguardo di tutto ciò che Bob fu aldilà ed al di fuori della sua superba band degli eighties. Se ciò che si cerca, invece, è l'ennesimo album cantautorale di Bob Mould, ovviamente unico autore di tutti i pezzi targati Sugar, ci troveremo di fronte al "solito" Bob, che magari addolcisce un po' di più un paio di episodi ascrivibili a quel se stesso di buonumore, al fanciulletto che è in sé. E che per il resto ci offre ancora esemplari di rock "caustico", folk elettrificato, ballads atipiche ed un (stavolta non molto riuscito) esperimento finale di voci e suoni ipnotici.
Il disco avrà buon successo di critica nonché risultati di chart positivi. New Musical Express gradirà al punto tale che per il 1992 "Copper Blue" sarà nientemeno che il disco dell'anno. Siamo alle solite: dov'era NME quando Bob tirava fuori "Black Sheets Of Rain"? E dov'era in una miriade di altri episodi ancora?
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 The Act We Act (05:10)
I'm watching you walk
As you walk that distant way
Take that thing away from me
Take away most everything
I couldn't say I'd blame you
You should never look in back
You wouldn't be to blame
If you couldn't take it back
Hours slipping by as you watch
The worlds collide
Now you're nothing more
Than another passerby
The dark it turns to light
In a distant flash of night
Rolling with the tide I confide
The act we wear it thin again
If affection holds you back
Then what is left to hold
If I could find the answer to that
Question then I'd know
The thoughts that
Clutter up your mind
And leave me feeling drained
And walking pacing up the walls
Across the floor again
All the things I haven't seen
Once the final curtain has been raised
The act we act is wearing thin
The act we act we under my skin
The words the words we said goodbye
The words left choking in my mind
The act we act is wearing thin
I think we wear it out again
Another big explosion
Leaving you hoping
That something that once
Held you down
Could leave you feeling
On the ground
The confusion that persists
Decisions that you guessed
The one to stay and watch this
The one you might have missed
All the things I haven't seen
Once the final curtain has been raised
The act we act is wearing thin
The act we act we under my skin
The words the words we said goodbye
The words left choking in my mind
The act we act is wearing thin
I think we wear it out again
The act we act we under my skin
The act we act we under my
Forming a conclusion
And you're left standing
04 Helpless (03:05)
Another time time after time
You make me feel so helpless I
I never tried to change your mind
I keep it to myself it's
Sometimes I've got to tell you
Is it this time I'll tell you
We've got to go to places
Somewhere I don't mind it's special
And now you find as time goes by
You're left with nothing
Meaning much
The meaning I will have to try
To take your mind to places
I wish that I could help you
But you seem less than helpless
I always tried to tell you
Someday that it'd seem so special
Time after time what's on your mind
You make me feel so helpless I
You never tried what's on your mind
You make me feel so helpless I
I feel so helpless I
You're left alone with something
And I hope for you it's one thing
That something you and yours can
Hold and hold as something special
And now you find as time goes by
You're left with nothing meaning much
The meaning I will have to try
What's on your mind so helpless I
I feel so helpless I
05 Hoover Dam (05:27)
Standing on the edge
Of the Hoover Dam
I'm on the centerline
Right between two states of mind
And if the wind from the traffic
Should blow me away
From this altitude
It will come back to you
And do you know the time
All that's left of me is slight insanity
What's on the right I don't know
If the Mississippi should wash me away
Down to New Orleans
Maybe someday in my dreams
I'd wake feeling the sweat
From the gulf in my mouth
On a carousel I can never tell
My direction home
Spinning down a hole
I'm losing all control
I'm down to the center of the earth
Covered up with lava and I feel fine
It washes over me
Keeps me feeling warm at night
And if you've made a deal with
The guy with the horns and the cape
I'll see you later later
Standing on the edge
Of the Hoover Dam
Standing on the edge
Of the Hoover Dam I am
06 The Slim (05:14)
Do you know where you're going
Do you know where you've been
Is it simple is it simple
The chances seemed so slim
In a cloud is it cloudy
You've clouded up again
Your perception your decision
Your decision
Behind I'm left behind
Oh, I'm left behind, I'm left behind
It's a matter of time
Your protection from ejection
My rejection
Protection from the slide
Projection from a slide
Did it all seem so easy
So easy to concede
Giving in giving in
The chances seemed so slim
In a moment just a moment
I felt you rushing in
You were rushing I am crushing
Your rush to cruise this
I'm left behind
Left behind I'm left behind
It's a matter of time
Your protection from injection
My rejection
Protection from the slide
Projection from a slide
I with your breath on my pillow
And I with the memory
I get to wait it out never put it away
When you left with your death
I felt empty when I looked back
On my pillow what you used to say
What you used to say
I...I'm left behind
I...I'm left behind
I with your breath on my pillow
I with the memory
I get to wait
It out never put it away
When you left with your death
I felt anger when I looked back
On my pillow what you used to say
What you used to say
I felt your breath for a moment
I heard your voice for a moment
Then I looked back
On my pillow what you used to say
What we used to say
That the chances seemed so slim
The chances used to be so slim
Now I swim alone
The slim
Alone
To honor and obey
To cherish and to worship
In sickness and in health
For richer for poorer for anything
Til death do us part
07 If I Can't Change Your Mind (03:18)
Tears fill up my eyes
I'm washed away with sorrow
And somewhere in my mind
I know there's no tomorrow
I see you're leaving soon
I guess you've had your fill
But if I can't change your mind
Then no one will
And all throughout the years
I've never strayed from you my dear
But you suspect I'm somewhere else
You're feeling sorry for yourself
Leaving with a broken heart
I love you even still
But if I can't change your mind
Then no one will
Even though my heart keeps breaking
Don't you know that I'll be waiting
Here for you
Then when you return
When will you return
I hope you see I'm dedicated
Look how long that I have waited
If you come back then you will find
A different person
If you change your mind
How can I explain away
Something that I haven't done
And if you can't trust me now
You'll never trust in anyone
With all the crazy doubts you've got
I love you even still
But if I can't change your mind
Then no one will
Someday you'll see I've been true
I'll stay that way until
But if I can't change your mind
Then no one will
08 Fortune Teller (04:27)
A part of me stands confused again
Watching it slip right
Through my hands
Put a finger on it now before it's gone
All of it gone it's all so wrong
Nothing could ever be so wrong
Put a finger on it now before it's gone
And leave a message by the door
Before you're gone
Maybe crystal ball is fortune teller
Maybe cards laid out as fortune teller
In the future tense as past
And fortune present here at least
Couldn't be more tied up by you
Couldn't you be forgiving too
All you ever think is
Everything gone wrong
Nothing I do can stop this slide
I feel like part of something died
All you ever think is
Everything gone wrong
And leave a message by the door
Before you're gone
Maybe I don't need a fortune teller
And maybe I don't want this
Fortune teller
Little box that never lied
I guess I'm keeping this inside
09 Slick (04:59)
I was crazy to think crazy to chase
Chasing this automobile
I tend to think were you ready to race
Racing this automobile
It's a machine it's the one in my dreams
It's taking me out of control it slips
Through my hands on the wheel
Don't you know how it feels
When you're driving your dreams
Through a pole
I hate your face I hate the wall
I'm sick of staring at the wall
I hate the mirror with alcohol
There is no wall
All I remember is the sound
Of squealing tires
The road disappeared only to be
Replaced by the sound of twisted steel
The collision was swift
And the next thing I knew
Was that I might be dead
All my life passed before my eyes
When I opened my eyes
I was looking at you
They sent you here to take care of me
I don't know your name
I can't hear your voice
I can't speak
And all I do is wait for you to feed me
They said the road was slick
I said I've been feeling sick
My head went through the mirror
Why did they send you here
I want to get up and shake you loose
I want to be free of these machines
I want to be released from this dream
I want to be another machine
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