The Twin Cities were a legendary epicenter of the 1980s Amerindie movement, and with hometown heroes the Replacements and Hüsker Dü having led the charge, the landscape is reverberating decades later. While the ’Mats just caved to the reunion cash-grab, their core Hüsker Dü counterparts, Bob Mould and Grant Hart, haven’t put aside their acrimonious split. Odds of Hüsker re-forming remain nil. But who needs it? Mould returned to Sugar-y glory with 2012’s Silver Age, and Hart—having endured years of label woes and personal hardships—is finally getting his due. The subject of a forthcoming documentary (Every Everything), Hart has landed on a legit label, Domino, in time for what might be his boldest offering, a sprawling, concept-based double LP.
Akin to thematic monoliths such as Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade and his own The Last Days of Pompeii (from post-Hüsker outfit Nova Mob), The Argument tackles an unlikely inspiration: 17th-century poet John Milton’s epochal Paradise Lost, deconstructing its “Fall of Man” theme into a theatrical revelation thick with Hart’s still-majestic pipes and glistening ’60s-styled hooks. Expect to hear outstanding cuts like “Morningstar” and “Sin” at Cake Shop, alongside plentiful Hüsker gems.—Brad Cohan