Zen Arcade

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Zen Arcade
Double album by Hüsker Dü
Released	July 1984
Recorded	October 1983 at the Total Access in Redondo Beach, California (except "Standing By The Sea," recorded during the Metal Circus sessions, Dec 1982)
Genre	Alternative, Hardcore punk
Length	70:23
Label	SST Records
Producer(s)	Hüsker Dü, Spot
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Hüsker Dü chronology
Metal Circus (1983)	Zen Arcade (1984)	New Day Rising (1985)

Zen Arcade is the third full-length album from the American rock band Hüsker Dü, released in July 1984 on SST Records. Originally released as a double album on two vinyl LPs, Zen Arcade is a concept album about an adolescent who runs away because his home life is unfulfilling, only to find the world outside is even worse. The album incorporates elements of jazz, psychedelia, acoustic folk, pop, and piano interludes; concepts previously unheard-of in the world of early '80s hardcore punk.

Zen Arcade and subsequent Hüsker Dü albums were instrumental in the creation of the alternative rock genre; the band would later abandon the "hardcore" aesthetic entirely in favor of a post-hardcore style of melodic, guitar-driven alternative rock. While not commercially successful, the influence of Zen Arcade has stretched beyond the underground music sphere, and it is frequently included on professional lists of the all-time best rock and roll albums.

Contents 1 Background 2 Recording and production 3 Music 3.1 Narrative 4 Critical reception 5 Track listing 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] Background

Hüsker Dü had gained notice in the American indie music scene of the early 1980s as a fast and aggressive hardcore punk band. Hüsker Dü were the first non-West Coast signings to the California independent record label SST Records, which at the time specialized in releases by hardcore bands, most notably Black Flag. However, the trio's music was becoming more melodic and nuanced with each release; songs like "Diane," about the rape and murder of a young woman, covered subjects not addressed in hardcore at the time, and the band indicated an interest in 1960s rock by covering The Byrds' "Eight Miles High".

In an interview with Steve Albini for his Matter column in 1983, singer/guitarist Bob Mould told Albini:^[1]

“

We're going to try to do something bigger than anything like rock & roll and the whole puny touring band idea. I don't know what it's going to be, we have to work that out, but it's going to go beyond the whole idea of 'punk rock' or whatever.

”

The band began rehearsing in preparation for the album during the summer of 1983, in a church-turned-punk squat in St. Paul, Minnesota. The band brainstormed lyrics and musical ideas during jam sessions that lasted several hours.^[2] Mould and drummer Grant Hart were the band's songwriters, and prior to embarking to California to record Zen Arcade, Mould was moved (by artwork that Hart had done for another band that did not list songwriting credit) to demand that Zen Arcade list individual songwriter credits.^[3] This practice would continue on all of the band's subsequent albums, and would contribute to ever-growing tensions between Mould and Hart.

[edit] Recording and production

According to the liner notes, the entire album was recorded and mixed in 85 hours, and all but two songs ("Something I Learned Today" & "Newest Industry") are first takes. The track "What's Going On" contains guest vocals from ex-Black Flag vocalist Dez Cadena.

[edit] Music

Zen Arcade, in line with previous Hüsker Dü albums, had a mainly hardcore punk focus, with songs such as "Something I Learned Today" (sample (help·info)) and "Indecision Time". However, the album also marked the point where the band introduced a more melodic and guitar-driven musical style, with elements of acoustic folk ("Never Talking To You Again"), psychedelia ("Hare Krsna" and "The Tooth Fairy And The Princess") and piano interludes ("One Step At A Time," "Monday Will Never Be The Same"); concepts rarely touched upon in early '80s hardcore punk.

[edit] Narrative

The lyrics of Zen Arcade are usually interpreted as telling the story, in the first person, of an adolescent who runs away to escape an unfulfilling home life, as typified in the lyrics of "Broken Home, Broken Heart", "Indecision Time", and "Somewhere." The unnamed character tries drugs ("When Pink Turns to Blue"), and religion ("Hare Krsna"), but concludes that he is unable to change his circumstances ("Newest Industry").^[4] He shortly discovers that the world outside is even worse. At the very end of the album, after he "turns on the news," it is revealed that this was all a dream, with disorienting 14-minute instrumental "Reoccurring Dreams" (featuring lots of backwards guitar loops) playing out the rest of his life.^{[citation needed]} Indicative of the band's desire for the album to be taken as a whole, no singles were released from it.

[edit] Critical reception

While the band insisted sales would be strong for Zen Arcade, SST initially only pressed between 3,500 and 5,000 copies of the album. The album was out of stock for months afterward and the delay in further copies stifled sales.^[5] In spite of this, upon its release Zen Arcade received positive reviews in many mainstream publications, including NME,^[6] The New York Times^[7] and Rolling Stone. In his review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke described Zen Arcade as "the closest hardcore will ever get to an opera . . . a kind of thrash Quadrophenia".^[8] In 1989, it was ranked #33 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. Zen Arcade placed eighth in the Village Voice annual Pazz & Jop poll. Village Voice crtic Robert Christgau declared in his annual review of the poll's results that, while he preferred rivals The Replacements' Let it Be, the song "Turn On the News" "gets my nomination for song of the year."^[9] The critical praise given to the album garnered attention from major labels, including Warner Bros. Records, with whom Hüsker Dü would eventually sign with in 1985.^[10]

By spring of 1985 Zen Arcade had sold 20,000 copies,^[11] and in subsequent years it has maintained a high critical status regardless of commercial success. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has placed "Turn On the News" on its list of "500 songs that shaped rock and roll."^[12]

[edit] Track listing

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

The CD and cassette releases of the album combines all the songs onto a single disc/cassette.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Analysis at Nude As The News
• Review by the Univ. of Chicago Maroon
• Zen Arcade at the All Music Guide

Hüsker Dü
Grant Hart | Bob Mould | Greg Norton
Discography
Albums: Land Speed Record | Everything Falls Apart | Zen Arcade | New Day Rising | Flip Your Wig | Candy Apple Grey | Warehouse: Songs and Stories | The Living End
EPs and Singles: Statues | In A Free Land | Metal Circus | Eight Miles High | Celebrated Summer | Makes No Sense At All | Sorry Somehow | Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely | Could You Be The One? | She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man) | Ice Cold Ice | Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All
Related articles
Nova Mob | Sugar | Grey Area