Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19814 in Music
• Released on: 1995-12-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even when this Minneapolis trio dabbled in familiar sounds, such as the strummed folk of "Never Talking to You Again" or the Bo Diddley-style R&B of "Hare Krsna", what came out on this swirling 1984 double album was clenched, emotional and intense. Over 23 short songs that helped define the still-thriving punk sub-genre known as hardcore, leaders Grant Hart and Bob Mould screamed their alienation in the fastest language they could possibly produce. Though Mould is the more personal songwriter, lashing out at liars and (presumably) lovers, both Hüsker heads come up with psycho-depression choruses like "What's going on inside my head?" --Steve Knopper

CD Description
Husker Du really hit their stride on this sprawling 1984 release. ZEN ARCADE established the band as one of the leadinglights on the American indie scene. The 23 songs are loosely linked to a narrative structure about a young man who leaves home, only to discover the world to be as oppressive and full of hypocrisy as home life had been. The songs show a marked increase in variety.
Along with classic Mould scream-fests ("The Biggest Lie", "Chartered Trips"), there are goosebump-inducing mini-anthems ("Whatever", "Newest Industry"), songs of eerie beauty (Hart's bewitching ode to a dead friend, "Pink Turns to Blue") and over-the-top feedback-drenched experiments like the 14-minute instrumental closer "Reoccurring Dreams". With this album, the dichotomy between Mould and Hart became clearly defined. Mould's songs are built around his explosive growl, while Hart emerges as the "poppier"one on the acoustic "Never Talking to You Again" and "Turn on the News", one of Hnsker's finest moments ever.

Customer Reviews

Unadulterated Husker Du
For all those people who have heard that Bob Mould and Grant Hart had a history, this album will let them know in no uncertain terms what that history comprised of. As with all Husker Du albums, it is possible to hear the various complexities that each of the aforementioned talents liked to explore, but nowhere is it more finely shown than on this album. From the punk sounds of "Broken Home, Broken Heart" and "Newest Industry" that were the trademark sound of Husker Du, to "Never Talking To You Again" that was to light the way for Grant Hart's work with Nova Mob, and on to "Turn On The News" & "Somewhere" which portend Bob Mould's solo work and subsequent work with Sugar. For a true insight into some of the music emerging from the American punk scene of the Eighties, your record collection should not be without this (almost!) groundbreaking album.

A punk concept album. Really!
Husker Du were always changing, in the space of a few years they had moved from the epic-minimalism of 'Statues' to the agony of 'Diane' to the frantic 'In a Free Land' to this concept double-album (!) Imagine a US punk take of 'Quadrophenia'- the next step on from Townshend.

'Something I Learned Today' & 'Broken Home, Broken Heart' sit up there with The Replacements 'Unsatisfied'. The influence on Nirvana is apparent; comedy corporate punk bands like Blink 182, Green Day & Sum 141 sound so false next to this...

Grant Hart goes all Richard Thompson for the gorgeous acoustic track 'Never Talking to You Again'. Then Mould takes us to pop-punk heaven with 'Chartered Trips', moving towards the sound of 'New Day Rising'...'Dreams Reoccuring' is a brief instrumental, sounding like the kind of semi-backwards b-side the Stone Roses got acclaimed for five years later...'Indecision Time' is a violent thrash that could have been played by Black Flag; this moves into 'Hare Krsna'- a bizarre jazz-inflected instrumental- whose repetition beats the hell out of Slint & all the other post-rockers!...'Beyond the Threshold' & 'Pride' are more speedy teenangst cuts; the difference is, the Du meant it. This wasn't radio friendly revolution for heavy rotation...'I'll Never Forget You' is an epic punk track, which while being oxymoronic is the only way to describe it. 'The Biggest Lie' was ripped off by Slaughterhouse for the soundtrack to 'Wild at Heart'. This is almost metal, until Hart's drums veer the song off down mania avenue; the sounds Mould gets out of his guitar!...'What's Going On' is next, the band all singing as one; this one was ripped off for the Punpkins '1979'. There is a pop-element here- as bizarre as something like Joy Division's 'Dead Souls' or Pere Ubu's 'My Dark Ages'...'Masochism World' is inflected with strange loops and an echoeing vocal- this was included on their classic 'Eight Miles High' single.It is also where they start using harmonic backing vocals!...'Standing by the Sea' opens with sound-effects and a looping bassline, the song is slightly slower- looking towards songs like 'Find Me' & '59 Times the Pain'...'Somewhere' is very poppy, this is what the Strokes should sound like; it is also a purifying moment for the album. Looking beyond and towards...'One Step at a Time', as the later 'Monday Will Never be the Same' are piano-based instrumental pieces that give the album a scope in style and would not sound out of place on a This Mortal Coil album...'Pink Turns to Blue' is one of Grant Hart's finest songs- up there with 'Diane', 'Sorry Somehow' & 'Tell You Why Tomorrow'. It's a classic teenage-love turned tragedy song that remains timeless in theme. The theme of drugs is invading, notably...'Newest Industry' opens with chiming guitars and an adventerous bassline- the album is becoming much sharper, less violent- more emotional...'Whatever'is a thoughtful slice of mania that stretches the conventional hardcore thrash to new ends; Hart & Mould singing together at the end gives the song such power.'The Tooth Fairy & the Princess'is an odd instrumental that sounds like Bill Nelson on LSD gone lo-fi, it intones "Don't Give Up/Don't Let Go/Don't Give In/Don't Let On/In Your Bed/Late at Night/Red hot Red/Don't Get Up'. Is this a dream of an inaccessible childhood memory?...'Turn on the News' opens with radio-static, recorded voices & sinister piano- as if a radio dial is being turned...then the song comes in and we get a pop-inflected punk'n'roll song. This is one that has lots of chanting and was a definite influence on fellow Minneaopilan Prince for 'Sign'o'the Times'...The album ends on the epic encore of 'Reoccuring Dreams'- this one goes to infinity & is close to a punk interpretation of Coltrane circa 'Live at Vanguard'.

'Zen Arcade' is a great, great album that deserves to find an audience today. It would be an ideal introduction to the Du- and remains a highlight of the Eighties, which can't have been that bad with records this good!

Essential Listening
Excellent double-album comprising some of the finest songs of the era. Grant Hart and Bob Mould were two of the finest song writers working in Rock music at the time. Buy it, if only to remember that Indie music and Punk used to mean something.