District Line

Those familiar with Bob Mould need no introducing to this rock legend. His previous incarnations as the driving force behind Husker Dü and Sugar inspired countless others to take up instruments and create something incendiary of their own.

How do you build on a quarter-century legacy and catalog as a living legend and trailblazer of alternative rock? When you're 47-year-old vet Bob Mould, you ignore such accolades, and go straight to making hair-raisingly emotional, undeniably catchy, loud, mature guitar rock albums. Yes, he was an '80s punk pioneer with Husker Du, and indie rock god with '90s juggernaut, Sugar. But in between and since, Mould has unleashed a half-dozen uncompromising solo LPs, unafraid to follow inspirations where they've led - from 1989's Richard Thompson-influenced 'Workbook' to 2002's dancefloor-minded 'Modulate'.

Now, following 2005's acclaimed, return-to-bracing 'Body of Song', Mould rips the roof off further with the hard-hitting, elastic 'District Line' - his first for Anti Records. Ace Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty returns from 'Body of Song', as the perfect backbone to Mould's determined guitar riffs, insistent basslines, and passionate, vulnerable singing. (Amy Domingues also again adds beautifully bittersweet cello.) Recorded in a Washington D.C. warehouse space with a mobile studio, 'District Line' is a dozen flavors of Mould's inspired, instantly memorable, melodic songwriting and playing. The inimitable blasting, bursting, guitar-smacked choruses of "Stupid Now," "Who Needs to Dream," "Return to Dust," "The Silence Between Us," and "Very Temporary" sit comfortably with the folk-tinged "Again and Again" and "Walls of Time," the more fanciful "Miniature Parade," and the electronic-laced postpunk dance stomp, "Shelter Me."