1985: The Miracle Year review on Pitchfork

[rap...@dds.nl]

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/husker-du-1985-the-miracle-year/

--Martin

[Jeff Yutzler]

Thanks for the reminder of how much I dislike Pitchfork. I don't get the feeling that the reviewer has any concept of what he is listening to. It might as well have been AI-generated.

On Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 03:41:27 AM EST, rap...@dds.nl <rap...@dds.nl> wrote:

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/husker-du-1985-the-miracle-year/

--Martin

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[Sumant Ranji]

Not generally a fan of Pitchfork either, but that’s a bit harsh. It’s written for people who don’t know anything about the Hüskers - which is probably 99% of Pitchfork’s readership - and does the job of communicating what they were about and why this is a significant release. Whoever wrote it knows what they’re talking about, it doesn’t sound like AI at all.  

Anyway it’s good for Hüsker Dũ to get mainstream attention for once. It feels like their legacy isn’t appreciated anywhere near as much as their contemporaries, probably because of the SST situation and the Bob/Grant sniping that prevented any meaningful marketing for so long. Nice to see that changing. 

Sumant 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 16, 2025, at 10:36 AM, 'Jeff Yutzler' via sugarlist <suga...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Jeff Yutzler]

Yes, it was good to get "mainstream pretending to be alternative" attention, but I believe the other conventional mainstream sources did a better job. 

1. If The Miracle Year tells us anything, it tells us that the conventional wisdom of "their notoriously thorny relationship" is pure fiction. There is plenty of evidence that things didn't actually get thorny until some time after the move to Warners and this release cements it.

2. I'm tired of people berating on the sound of the band's studio discography. People don't give Metallica a hard time for "Kill Em All" and the production/mastering decisions on "And Justice For All..." didn't stop that album from being a relative hit. I dislike most revisionist remixes (Replacements - "Tim", Pink Floyd - "Animals", etc.) and doubt a different mix would actually serve the material well. They weren't trying to create "Hysteria". The first-take rawness is part of its charm. Even when discussing the lack of remasters, he ignores both the source of the SST problem (Ginn) and the fact that WB hasn't done anything with their tapes either.

3. Being surprised that More Miracles doesn't have any overlap with the first disc is pure ignorance. Greg a) is not an idiot and b) worked very hard to come up with a companion disk to the Minnesota show. 

The writer simply didn't do his homework. Need I say more? Sure, I completely forgot about hearing All Work and No Play on YT about a year ago (since it has been out of print on vinyl forever and completely unavailable on CD, not even on the "Do You Remember?" sampler), but I don't do this for a living.

-Jeff Y.

On Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 05:07:23 PM EST, Sumant Ranji <sumant...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Sumant Ranji]

okay, sure, you didn't like the article. 

their albums do sound bad, especially on streaming which is where everyone hears them. yes, there's plenty of "charm" in records that don't sound good, but don't expect anyone other than hardcore fans to think that way. I love my collection of '80's live tapes recorded by some drunk guy in the pit with a Walkman, but I also realize that the general public would think they sound like shit. Personally, I think it's a shame that the Huskers aren't anywhere near as well known as the Replacements or Sonic Youth (to say nothing of Dinosaur Jr or many other bands they inspired) and for Bob, Greg, and Grant's family's sake, I'd like them to get more attention and don't particularly care if it's from a Pitchfork article that doesn't contain every last detail.

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