Keith Pille's Weekly Shuffle

Every week, I will fire up the Shuffle Songs option on my iPod; the first song to come up, no matter what it is, will get an instant, unvarnished review. We're at the mercy of random chance and the limits of my digital music collection. Let's see where this takes us.

Try Again
Sugar, Besides

My Thoughts on "Try Again," Presented in Handy Bullet-Point-Type Format:

• In 1996, I thought this was maybe the coolest song in the world because it was A) Bob Mould, B) sort-of-obscure Bob Mould, and C) featured feedback as part of the instrumentation! Holy shit!

• As of 2006, the stock has gone down a bit. Song's OK, but not among Mould's best stuff. Mould's best songs have really wide-open dynamics and guitar parts so rad that they really should be referred to as "lixx." "Try Again" doesn't have much for dynamics; it just hangs at the same level all the way through, with maybe a slight bump in intensity when the feedback kicks in. And as for that feedback, it's cooler in concept than in practice. These feedback noises would certainly never be accused of being hot lixx. It’s not a bad song, mind you—it's maybe in the middle of the Sugar pack, which puts it in maybe the lower third of the Mould lifetime pack.

Moreover, Mould's best stuff often features intensely personal, instrospective lyrics. "Try Again" comes across as a series of vaguely encouraging one-liners set over an acoustic guitar playing two chords. At one point, Mould even pads things by resorting to "I try and I try and I try and I try…"

• For whatever reason, my iPod seems to love this song. It comes up all the time. I know that it's gauche to speculate on how un-random the Shuffle Song algorithm is, but there seems to be a small cluster of songs, of which this is definitely part, that pop up all the time. Maybe the pod likes feedback.

• Frankly, it says nothing good about Sugar's creative focus that Besides, a B-sides collection, hangs together as an album better than File Under Easy Listening, the last real Sugar album.

• Conclusion: To be honest, you can get much better feedback-laden Bob Mould action by picking up the live Husker Du album The Living End.

Weekly Shuffle Scoreboard (Best to Worst):
1. "Rock N Roll Radio V2," Derailleur
2. "Back from Somewhere (live)," Husker Du
3. "The Ride of the Valkyries," Richard Wagner
4. "Powderfinger," Neil Young
5. "Sliver (live)," Nirvana
6. "Whiskey Bottle," Uncle Tupelo
7. "Don't Be Afraid of the Robot," Electric Six
8. "Allison's Starting to Happen," The Lemonheads
9. "Gassed & Stoked," Lou Reed
10. "Shooting Star," Golden Smog
11. "Wherever I Go," Steve Earle
12. "You Are the Everything," R.E.M.
13. "Nicotine & Gravy," Beck
14. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (live)," Wilco
15. "Ed Is Dead [live]," The Pixies
16. "The Calming Sea," Beachwood Sparks
17. "Try Again," Sugar
18. "John, I'm Only Dancing," David Bowie
19. "Take It or Leave it," The Strokes
20. "Is It Too Late?", World Party
21. "P'twgs," The Honeydogs
22. "Monkey Dot," Money Mark
23. "I Wanted to Tell You," Matthew Sweet
24. "Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin
25. "Soldier's Joy," Mark O'Connor
26. "Blue-Eyed Soul," Wilco
27. "Masoko Tanga," The Police
28. "Scenery," Neil Young and Pearl Jam
29. "We Got The," The Beastie Boys
30. "The Big Foist," The Minutemen
31. "Climbing up the Walls," Radiohead
32. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," Mission of Burma
33. "You Win Again," Keith Richards