Spot --
SST's house producer who manned the boards for
Zen Arcade and
New Day Rising -- didn't produce
Flip Your Wig,
Huesker Due's second album of 1985, and the difference is immediately noticeable. Everything on
Flip Your Wig is cleaner and brighter than on its two immediate predecessors, which is appropriate, considering that
Bob Mould and
Grant Hart have only increased their debt to '60s
pop. The hooks and melodies are on the surface, right from the kick-start call-and-response of the title track. On paper, it might sound as if
Huesker Due have watered down their
hardcore ideals, but it doesn't play that way.
Flip Your Wig is
pop played as
punk, as if this is the only time these songs could ever be heard. Which means
Hart's love song
"Green Eyes" and
Mould's pure
pop single
"Makes No Sense at All" are delivered with the same rage and passion as
Mould's blistering
"Divide and Conquer" and
Hart's
"Keep Hanging On," or the pair of surging, neo-psychedelic and noise-wracked instrumentals that close the album.
Flip Your Wig would be a remarkable record on its own terms, but the fact that it followed
New Day Rising by a matter of months and
Zen Arcade by just over a year is simply astonishing. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
