Bob Mould's 'Blue Hearts' due in September

Blake Little Photography/Merge Records

Bob Mould has announced the release of new album. BLUE HEARTS via Merge Records on Sept. 25; pre-orders are available now on LP, CD, and tri-color Peak Vinyl in the Merge store, or your favorite independent record shop. PRE-ORDER BLUE HEARTS

His 14th solo release follows last year's critically acclaimed SUNSHINE ROCK. First single "American Crisis" is available now for streaming and download HERE; an official lyric video is streaming now via YouTube HERE.

"'American Crisis' is a tale of two times," says Mould. "Past Time and Present Time. The parallels between 1984 and 2020 are a bit scary for me: telegenic, charismatic leaders, praised and propped up by extreme Evangelicals, either ignoring an epidemic (HIV/AIDS) or being outright deceitful about a pandemic (COVID-19)."

LISTEN TO "AMERICAN CRISIS"

WATCH "AMERICAN CRISIS"

BLUE HEARTS is described by its creator as "the catchiest batch of protest songs I've ever written in one sitting." Produced by Mould at Chicago's famed Electrical Audio with longtime collaborator Beau Sorenson engineering, the album - which once again features backing from the rhythm section of drummer Jon Wurster and bassist Jason Narducy - nods to the veteran singer-songwriter's groundbreaking past in Husker Du while remaining firmly planted in the issues of the day.

The acoustic opener, "Heart on My Sleeve," is about climate change, while "American Crisis" - written initially for SUNSHINE ROCK but deemed "too heavy" by its writer - includes the lyrics "I never thought I'd see this bullshit again / To come of age in the '80s was bad enough / We were marginalized and demonized / I watched a lot of my generation die / Welcome back to American crisis."

A couple songs were composed earlier this year during a three-day writing session prior to January 2020's sold-out Solo Electric tour.

BLUE HEARTS is fueled by a pervasive sense of déjà vu, its angry anthems of today equally informed by his experiences and memories of the early 1980s. Back then, Mould was a self-described "22-year-old closeted gay man" touring with the one and only Hüsker Dü as AIDS consumed his community. Leaders - including the one in the White House - seemed content to let the epidemic kill a generation. No wonder Bob Mould found his mind wandering back.

Says Mould about the songs' inspiration, "We have a charismatic, telegenic, say-anything leader being propped up by evangelicals," he says. "These fuckers tried to kill me once. They didn't do it. They scared me. I didn't do enough. Guess what? I'm back, and we're back here again. And I'm not going to sit quietly this time and worry about alienating anyone."

Track listing:

Heart on My Sleeve

Next Generation
American Crisis
Fireball
Forecast of Rain
When You Left
Siberian Butterfly
Everyth!ng to You
Racing to the End
Baby Needs a Cookie
Little Pieces
Leather Dreams
Password to My Soul
The Ocean