Everything Falls Apart
Hüsker Dü: 1981, Reflex Records.
Re-released by Rykodisc in 1993 as Everything Falls Apart and More.

This is the first studio album by Minneapolis speed-demons (both in sound and substance abuse) Hüsker Dü. After having independently released a single--"In a Free Land"/"M.I.C." & "What Do I Want?"--and a live album (Land Speed Record, an appropriate title) on the Alternative Tentacles lable (and subsequently released by the band's future label SST), the Hüskers expected to have landed a recording deal with hometown label Twin/Tone Records. Unfortunately for them, that deal went to their rivals, the Replacements. So, the band recorded Everything Falls Apart and released it on their own label--Reflex Records.

While it does stand as primarily a hardcore album, it shows signs--however small--of what would later become known as their trademark sound of dense layers of noise that would suddenly glide into rather beautiful melodies--particularly on the title track.

The original order went as follows:

  • 1. From The Gut *
  • 2. Blah, Blah, Blah *
  • 3. Punch Drunk
  • 4. Bricklayer
  • 5. Afraid Of Being Wrong
  • 6. Sunshine Superman (yes, the Donovan song)
  • 7. Signals From Above
  • 8. Everything Falls Apart

    The reissue featured the following tracks; 9-10, 11-12, 13-15, 16-17 are singles, while 18-19 are demos.

  • 9. Wheels §
  • 10. Target
  • 11. Obnoxious
  • 12. Gravity
  • 13. In A Free Land
  • 14. What Do I Want? §
  • 15. M.I.C.
  • 16. Statues §
  • 17. Let's Go Die
  • 18. Amusement
  • 19. Do You Remember? (the literal translation of "hüsker dü?" an old board game)

    all songs by Bob Mould except:
    * Mould/Norton
    § Hart


    from Hüsker Dü's album Everything Falls Apart" (see above).

    If I listened to the things that you said
    everything would fall apart
    If I did all the things that you do
    everything could fall apart
    Let's not listen to the things that they say
    everything can fall apart
    Let's think about our actions before we do them
    everything will fall apart

    I got nothing to do
    You got nothing to say
    Everything is so fucked up
    I guess it's natural that way.

    Everything falls apart

    If I did all the things that you do
    everything could fall apart
    If I listened to all the things that you told me
    everything would fall apart
    Let's think about our actions before we do them
    everything will fall apart
    If we do all the things as we say
    everything can fall apart.

    I got nothing to do
    you got nothing to say
    everything is so fucked up
    I guess it's natural that way

    I got nothing to do
    you got nothing to say
    everything is so fucked up
    I guess we like it that way

    If I listened to the things that
    you said everything


    Nihilism.
    "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold/mere anarchy is loosed upon the world"--W.B. Yeats "The Second Coming"