Bob Mould

In 2019, Bob Mould bucked the era's despair with his melodic, upbeat album Sunshine Rock. Cut to spring 2020, and he has this to say: We're really in deep shit now. That sentiment informs his new full-length album, Blue Hearts, the raging-but-catchy yin to Sunshine Rock's yang. Leather Dreams, Password to My Soul, and The Ocean were composed during a writing binge before a January 2020 Solo Electric tour, when Mould stayed up for three straight days. Songs just kept coming out, he says. Leather Dreams and The Ocean both appeared within hours. I barely remember writing them.