this is not pitchfork

Driving home from work one day last week, Makes No Sense At All was on the radio (Yes! Husker Du on the radio!). It was one of those March in New York days where it’s not quite warm out, but warmer than it’s been, so you squirm out of your jacket as you’re driving and open the window a bit, as if it were really spring.

This song – hell, this whole album – was made for a day like this. Flip Your Wig is spring. It’s that first breath of fresh air after a stale, dark winter. It’s melting snow and buds on trees and daydreaming about what to plant in the garden this year. It’s uplifting in a way that belies some of the lyrics, but is fully understood by the musical tone. There’s a freshness and crispness to Flip Your Wig that makes the world seemed bathed in a clean light.

That’s not to say the usual Hüsker Dü sentiments aren’t there. There’s still the anger and the passion and the quiet rage, but they’re delivered with a blast of spunk, which may be something like pop punk, but a bit harder. Flip Your Wig is a record that makes me want run through a field of flowers in a flowery dress and straw hat, with Divide and Conquer playing in the background, like some warped version of a Massengill commercial.

I may be the first person to use a feminine product analogy for a punk album. I hope I’m the last.

Most Hüsker Dü fans will point to Zen Arcade or Flip Your Wig as their favorite. In my eyes, New Day Rising was their absolute pinnacle. This album is pure brilliance from beginning to end. The songwriting, the music, the way it’s all put together in such a tight, perfectly crafted package is beyond anything else they ever did. While the music may seem to be more melodic, more pop-influenced in comparison to Zen Arcade before it, what they give you here is about 40 minutes of catharsis. It’s a whole bunch of emotions and memories and fury and power packed into one perfect package. If you listen to this album right and feel what you are supposed to feel, the first three songs alone should wear you out emotionally and physically. And that’s before you even get to Celebrated Summer or 59 Times the Pain. If I had to make a personal top ten albums of all time list, New Day Rising would be right there.

Favorite song: Books About UFOs
The Hüsker Dü database