Flip Your Wig | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 1985 | |||
Recorded | March–June 1985 | |||
Studio | Nicollet Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:09 | |||
Label | SST (055) | |||
Producer | Bob Mould and Grant Hart | |||
Hüsker Dü chronology | ||||
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Singles from Flip Your Wig | ||||
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Flip Your Wig is the fourth studio album by American band Hüsker Dü, released in September 1985. It was the best-selling album to that point for the band's label SST Records, and the last they made for that label. As the band's first self-produced album, they spent months in the studio to achieve higher-quality production for its melodic power pop songs.
By 1985 Hüsker Dü was the best-selling band on SST Records. [3] The band had wanted to produce their previous album New Day Rising, but SST insisted on sending long-time label producer Spot. [4] With Flip Your Wig the band was finally allowed to self-produce. [3] Recording took place over several sessions in the band's hometown of Minneapolis [5] from March to June 1985, by far the longest the band had spent in the studio. [3] The cleaner production complemented the more melodic songs, still performed with heavily distorted guitars in a high-powered manner. [6]
Mould said, "There's more emphasis on the vocals. They're a little more out-front. The production is the main thing. Clearer vocals and less emphasis on guitar. The crazy solos... I think we're a little out of that now." [7]
Guitarist Bob Mould and drummer Grant Hart each wrote roughly half the songs, [6] which continued the band's trend toward power pop and away from the fast, noisy hardcore punk of their earliest material. [1]
" Makes No Sense at All" was released as a single, [5] with " Love Is All Around" (the theme song of the Mary Tyler Moore Show) on the b-side. [8] [9] The a-side was the band's first song to achieve significant airplay on album-oriented rock radio. [10] and its video was the band's first. [5]
"The Baby Song" was a tribute to Grant Hart's newborn child. In 2010, The A.V. Club named it one of "24 songs that almost derail great albums". [11]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Chicago Tribune | [12] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [13] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10 [14] |
The Village Voice | A− [15] |
Flip Your Wig appeared via SST in September 1985. It débuted at No. 5 on the CMJ album charts and received more radio airplay and mainstream press attention than the band's earlier releases, including stories in Creem, Spin, [10] Rolling Stone. [16] Robert Christgau declared in The Village Voice that with the album's production the band had "never sounded so good", [15] and the album placed in the top ten of the magazine's critics' poll for 1985 along with New Day Rising. [10] Flip Your Wig became SST's best-selling album at the time of its release, [17] moving 50,000 copies in its first four months. [5]
By the time the album was released Hüsker Dü had signed a record deal with the major-label Warner Music Group, [18] who were keen to release the album themselves. [19] However, out of loyalty, and because of SST's appointment of new promotions manager Ray Farrell, the album was given to SST. [20]
Decades later, Bob Mould saw Flip Your Wig as "the best album Hüsker Dü ever did". [21] Ira Robbins and John Leland at Trouser Press describe the album as "Positively brilliant — fourteen unforgettable pop tunes played like armageddon were nigh" and rate "Makes No Sense at All" as "one of 1985's best 45s". [22] AllMusic's review says "Flip Your Wig would be a remarkable record on its own terms, but the fact that it followed New Day Rising by a matter of months and Zen Arcade by just over a year is simply astonishing." [23]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Flip Your Wig" | Bob Mould | 2:33 |
2. | "Every Everything" | Grant Hart | 1:56 |
3. | " Makes No Sense at All" | Mould | 2:43 |
4. | "Hate Paper Doll" | Mould | 1:52 |
5. | "Green Eyes" | Hart | 2:58 |
6. | "Divide and Conquer" | Mould | 3:42 |
7. | "Games" | Mould | 4:06 |
8. | "Find Me" | Mould | 4:05 |
9. | "The Baby Song" | Hart | 0:46 |
10. | "Flexible Flyer" | Hart | 3:01 |
11. | "Private Plane" | Mould | 3:17 |
12. | "Keep Hanging On" | Hart | 3:15 |
13. | "The Wit and the Wisdom" | Mould | 3:41 |
14. | "Don't Know Yet" | Mould | 2:14 |
Liner notes adapted from the album sleeve. [24]
Chart (1985) | Peak position |
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UK Indie Chart | 1 [26] |
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