Sugar— Tilted (Beaster, 1993)

This mid 90's 4 minute long scorcher with stream-of-consciousness lyrics and a signature barrage of guitars is as good a way to start the list as any. The arrangement is a bit unique with one of Bob’s most impressive and frenetic guitar solos coming in a bit after the first chorus. Trying to play this song on guitar and sing it reminded me of the first time I tried to play Chuck Berry’s Maybelline. The lyrics fly at you at such a frantic pace that combined with playing the guitar part it’s like a musical tongue twister. This is some very fast paced punkish grunge during the grunge era he himself helped to inspire.

2. Husker Du — Divide and Conquer (Flip Your Wig, 1985)

“We’ll invent some new computers / Link up the global village … We’ll be one happy neighborhood / Spread out across the world”

You’ve got to be in a pretty exclusive echelon of awesome to write lyrics like that, much less in your hardcore punk band’s songs in 1985. Most of the lyrics in this song are akin to what you’d get if you told a cynic to write a summary of geopolitics in 2014. They can be eerily prophetic, if vague. These heady lyrics combined with Bob’s simple cowboy chord composition and punk intensity create something uniquely Husker.

This is one that I was almost a bit hesitant to put on the list for fear that it was too popular as far as Husker Du songs go to be thought of as underrated. With the popularity-to-quality ratio of almost any Husker Du song, however, I think most would be safe on this list.

3. Sugar — Walking Away (Beaster, 1993)

You know it’s underrated when the only version you an find of it on youtube is of someone filming it playing on a record player… which is conveniently actually pretty cool.

A massively reverb-laiden vocal and a dreamy organ beneath make this sound more like something squeezed between tracks on an early ‘70s Yes album than a mid ‘90s Sugar album. It’s a welcome change of pace on the record, a true display of the diversity of Bob’s songs, and a great spaced-out track.

4. Bob Mould — Taking Everything (The Last Dog and Pony Show, 1998)

Bob dives into simple pop just as frequently and capably as he does blaring hardcore punk, and this song is a great example of that. The paired harmonies, like something you could expect coming out of 60s Byrds, mesh perfectly with Mould’s wall-of-sound distortion.

5. Bob Mould — Fire In the City/Tomorrow Morning (Beauty & Ruin, 2014)

Beauty & Ruin, released just months ago, was greeted by positive reviews and even fought to a spot in Billboard’s top 10 rock music charts. More important than that, it contains some of the best work of Bob’s career. The list of artists for whom a claim like that can be legitimately made about work this late in their career is extremely short. Like… Neil Young and nobody else I can think of right now short.

Gone is the crude sound of Mould eras like Husker or his Black Sheets of Rain solo years. These songs are so pristine clean that, despite all their volume and distortion, they feel like the punk rock version of a $10,000/mo downtown apartment with modern decor. Everything is solid and bold and in exactly the right spot. Tomorrow Morning is so short and tightly packed that there almost isn’t any room for it to be anything but perfect. He’s had 35 years to work on the formula, and by now, it seems like he’s got it pretty figured out.

6. Ryan Adams — Black Sheets of Rain (Black Sheets of Rain, 1990)

It is so rare in music that a cover of a song becomes its defining version. Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower, Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T., and few others achieved this. This seems to be the case with Ryan Adam’s cover of this title track (the rough production and slogging pace on the original doesn’t help its case). Bob might seem to agree, as he invited Ryan to perform it at his 2013 See a Little Light career-spanning collaborative concert. Still, it is most definitely Bob’s song, so here it is.

7. Sugar — Gift (File Under Easy Listening, 1992)

Bob has been vocal about the influence the band My Bloody Valentine had on his songwriting, and nowhere is it more clear than in this song. The straining guitar lead sounds like a stylistic nod in all the right ways to their classic album Loveless. Besides that, it’s just a good fun song.

8. Hukser Du — Real World (Metal Circus, 1983)

This song is pretty defining of the true hardcore punk of early Husker Du. It’s fast, brutal, tight, aggressive, and everything a hardcore punk song should be, but its progressive lyrics and and spazzy fuzz guitar make it something more.

This was apparently one of the deeper cuts that squeaked its way onto the setlist for Mould’s recent surprise gig at Minneapolis’s legendary (but very small) First Avenue side stage venue the 7th St. Entry. Fitting, as there would be few songs to better represent the early years when it was Husker Du’s stomping ground.

9. Husker Du — Newest Industry (Zen Arcade, 1984)

Husker Du did a lot of growing in the years following Metal Circus, bringing new progressive sounds to their hardcore roots and entering some pretty weird sound spaces. This tripped out track backed by a droning piano off of their classic Zen Arcade is a perfect example of the strange and inventive directions they were willing to go during that era.

10. Bob Mould — Slay/Sway (Modulate, 2002)

After decades of cranking up his amp, Mould defied expectations and dropped 2002's largely electronic Modulate. Less surprising was that the album left his core fans a little confused. As someone who was not along for the ride of his career, looking at this album objectively it is still Bob. It’s just a completely different side of him.

It’s like something you’d find on the Bandcamp page of a teenager with garage band who just makes music for fun. The cool part is that Bob can still make music with that joy of just being curious and glad to be able to experiment and mess around and make songs. Most people only can do that when they’re teenagers.

11. Bob Mould — Dreaming, I Am (Workbook, 1989)

This is one of the more interesting tracks on Mould’s melancholy and understated Workbook album. Huge swaths of his solo career seem to waver between the ferocious Beaster-style punk and a softer side that this song and album exemplify. Both sides end up in a unique place unlike any other artist. This is also the world’s greatest song to put on when staring out a train window on a rainy day (I tested).

12. Bob Mould — Poison Years (Workbook, 1989)

Another decidedly dark song off of this decidedly dark album. The plodding pace of the intro and the repetitive minor patterns make so that when the patented Bob Mould superchorus finally hits, it does so powerfully (even by Mould standards).

13. Husker Du — Friend You’ve Got to Fall/Visionary (Workbook, 1987)

These back-to-back tracks show the rawness of Husker’s sound combined with Mould’s pop songwriting at both of their best. The jangly chordal riff of Friend You’ve Got to Fall is pure Kinks style rock n’ roll and is followed up with the kind of chorus that can still swim around in your head hours later when you’re trying to sleep. Visionary’s speed and simplicty following it up make this a classic one-two punch and a real highlight on the album.

14. Bob Mould — Stupid Now (District Line, 2008)

As poppy (and admittedly cheesy) as Bob ever gets, it’s always all OK because a rock solid chorus can carry any song, and Mould could fart and accidentally write a rock solid chorus.

15. Sugar — Fortune Teller (Copper Blue, 1992)

Of Sugar’s three albums, Copper Blue is clearly the zinger. There’s hardly a dull moment on the entire album, and it comes with that territory that one of the best tracks hasn’t gotten the appreciation it might deserve. The sections of this song lead so smoothly into each other and swirl around in such a complete circle that it’s almost hypnotizing. The signature guitar riff cuts in-between and locks it all together. What would be a standout is lost in a sea of stellar Copper Blue tracks.