Could Bob Mould be getting mellow? As one third of the seminal 1980's punk outfit Husker Du, he made angry, self-hating music that influenced just about every noisy pop band to blitz onto MTV's Buzz Bin. After that union fell apart in '88, Mould cranked out two solo albums, formed Sugar with drummer Malcolm Travis and bassist David Barbe, and released the noisily poppy Copper Blue to massive critical acclaim in 1992. A subsequent EP, the darker Beaster, also had rock writers slavering. File Under: Easy Listening, Sugar's latest, won't threaten Mould's status as critics' darling. ''There's the usual sunny music crossed with the ironic view of relationships and people,'' says Mould, 33. But what's missing from this record is his habitual self-flagellation. ''It's not all self-analysis and destruction,'' he says. ''I don't think in the past year and a half I've had the time. It's just been nonstop and a lot of good things have been happening.'' One of those affirming events was Mould's move from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Austin, Tex., where he recorded File. ''The change affects my disposition,'' says the Minneapolis native, ''because I'm not waiting in lines all the time, and my life is a bit more settled now.'' That's positive euphoria compared to Mould's state of mind when he wrote his first song, a soulful outpouring called ''Let Me Live Today.'' With the ca- dence of a hymn, the song, says Mould, ''is sort of a plea to be allowed to enjoy things.'' It was written when he was 9 years old. After all the musical fury unleashed since then, it seems that-nearly 25 years later-Mould has finally gotten his wish.
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