Bobby's song #3: "The Slim" by Sugar

I came across my sister's Copper Blue tape in 1993 and "borrowed" it to have in my car. I was 16 or 17. I don't know if she ever listened to it because she never seemed to notice that it was missing, something she almost always did when I "borrowed" her stuff, so I ended up not feeling so bad about keeping it. I remember listening to it the first few times while driving to and from school and thinking. It was definitely not the kind of music I gravitated towards at that time. I mostly listened to death metal. Sugar was decidedly not that.

Like all teenagers, I had already experienced my share of heartbreaks by that age. At the time I felt that these experiences were, naturally, devastating and traumatic. Any art that captured that sense of heartbreak or loss instantly resonated with me. This is why The Slim was the track that kept me listening to this album over and over again.

The Slim by Sugar

Sugar was Bob Mould's 2nd attempt to front a band. His first, more famous, attempt was the well-regarded Husker Dü. Husker Dü started off as a hardcore-punk band in the early 80s but became more of a punk/alternative crossover by the mid-80s. If you compare later Husker Dü with Sugar's music you can easily hear that Mould was the driving musical force behind both bands. They sound very similar with the only difference being that Sugar was definitely more radio-friendly.

Despite Copper Blue being voted 1992's Album of the Year by NME and some catchy singles (this blog entry was very nearly about If I Can't Change Your Mind) Sugar failed to make much of an impression on the US charts (and performed only modestly on the UK charts). They stayed together long enough to record one more album and then called it quits.