File Under Easy Listening has been maligned for being too similar to Copper Blue. And no doubt, I'm in that camp. Whenever I see this album on Amazon, I see it in the one-cent ghetto. In local record stores, it's usually on that huge wall of CDs that's marked "3 for $3", along with CDs from Deadeye Dick and a Backstreet Boys single.
But like most of Bob Mould's post-Husker Du output (at least before he dabbled into techno), there was at least a genuine stab at creating a truly great pop song. That was Bob Mould's Moby Dick. Yes, there were tons of moments on albums like Zen Arcade that had Mould screaming at the top of his lungs amidst a wall of ear-piercing feedback, but he also had an amazing sense of rhythm, which was accentuated on the brilliant New Day Rising.
So, I've spent the last couple of weeks transferring any remaining CDs that didn't make it to my removable hard drive...to my removable hard drive. It's a great way to rediscover some works that have been gathering some serious dust (see Virgin Suicides soundtrack, Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero" maxi-single, complete with a 20-minute plus song). Sure enough, File Under Easy Listening came up.
The album is no Copper Blue, but it certainly doesn't deserved to be left with stacks of other forgotten CDs at a failing record store. If only for the song "Gee Angel." It's pure Sugar - watery guitar riffs, Mould's driving vocals and a chorus that's difficult to shake.
The video is also a great snapshot of mid-90s nostalgia. The video's effects are so dated, they take on an endearing quality. The cartoons in the video are great - utterly familiar...you've seen these things before, but for the life of you, you don't remember where. They're not Warner Bros. They're not Hanna Barbara, they're not Disney, but you swear you've seen them sometime before - maybe on a cheap, locally-produced Sunday morning entertainment show for kids to watch while their moms and dad's get dressed up for church.
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