[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1984.
Country:
Overall rank: 405
Average rating: 79/100 (from 587 votes).

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Tracks:
1. Something I Learned Today
2. Broken Home, Broken Heart
3. Never Talking To You Again
4. Chartered Trips
5. Dreams Reoccurring
6. Indecision Time
7. Hare Krsna
8. Beyond The Threshold
9. Pride
10. I'll Never Forget You
11. The Biggest Lie
12. What's Going On
13. Masochism World
14. Standing By The Sea
15. Somewhere
16. One Step At A Time
17. Pink Turns To Blue
18. Newest Industry
19. Monday Will Never Be The Same
20. Whatever
21. The Tooth Fairy And The Princess
22. Turn On The News
23. Reoccurring Dreams

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[dihansse]

For the moment my best ever album!

[DommeDamian]

Practically all about it is fascinating. The two times 40-hour window is something I would hope a bigger crowd of (punk) musicians would challenge themselves to - I certainly will try it. Albeit the album wasn’t recorded, mixed and mastered in a period as long as the majority of records, it’s still in a league of its own in terms of quality hardcore. Zen Arcade is a punk symphony, and the best to ever be (AJJ’s 2011 opus Knife Man certainly came close though). Containing experimentation of the best excellence, Zen Arcade is (with the statement of Scaruffi I agree upon) The “Divine Comedy” of punk. It’s also the best album to skate to. Not that I skate though, my gut just tells me it is. But it could be wrong, because it’s been beaten up and down, by the lyrics expressed throughout ZA. Beginning with Something I Learned Today, best hardcore opener of all time. Everything I love about energetic music in general, is bursting in the 2 minute definite classic. The gut puncher starts here.
Zen Arcade, generally also features the craziest, coolest, emotionally potent concept contributed to a story ever, it’s up there. Even the cover art is resembling of the vague images we get in our dreams. Also the individual parts of the stories leads to some of the most authentically hard-hitting songs of those topics, period. I cannot think of a better song about unforgettable negative emotions all around than I’ll Never Forget You! What’s Going On is like my religious anthem, almost everyday, my conscious has this song on its record player. Coming out of an abusive relationship, the song Never Talking To You Again is a bit too relatable (the lo-fi guitar passage around that song is a big plus for me). Speaking of guitars, those solos on these tunes are RIDICULOUSLY good; the swimming thrash of Pride; along with the reversed clouds of Somewhere are perfect examples of that. Going back to the experimentation thing, the instrumental balance is not spoken as much as I would hope too. Just listen to Pink Turns To Blue: the small harmonies in the chorus, and the “heavy rock” solo on top of the catchy punk guitar underneath, is musical brilliance. And referencing the short window of sessions, it’s perfectly engineered. Or take Standing By The Sea’s bass of surveillance compliment the stoned guitar and Bob Mould’s more melodically emotional shouting (at least compared to the remaining of Zen Arcade)
But of course, not all of it is sterling hardcore-ness. One Step At A Time, the shortest song on here (45 seconds), is… psychedelic?!? Pleasantly surprised on my fifth listen about it. Though, I wished it could have a been a minute longer. The other song under a minute, Monday Will Never Be The Same, sounds like a beginning to an anthemic pop song, but Husker Du is too self-aware for the average rock band, so they stop it there at the already ambiguous beginning. Used to dislike Hare Krsna, but found it to be very punk, the way the chiming is mixing as the front-driver of the track - reminds of something Flipper would attempt. In regards to the ‘plot’, I still get the chills of Tooth-Fairy And The Princess. Movie-wise, Turn On The News would be like the morning after the night hell broke loose. Well, on Zen Arcade, it is……that, but concurrently almost a continuation of the boy’s cycle he expressed at the beginning. And at last, ambiguous Reocurring Dreams is the punk symphony’s ultimate Musical climax, as well as the soundtrack to the final nail in my gut’s coffin.
The complete ambition of Zen Arcade is heart-cutting places of feelings put to words, lying within some extraodinary, deliciously infectious hardcore punk. Proof that it wasn’t all about punk culture and the art form hadn’t at all slowed down in the 80s. What a blasting beautiful mess this is.
PS: it’s pronounced Hoosker Doo (it’s Danish and Norwegian and means “do you remember”)!
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