the most recent Bob Mould solo album...

Aaron, stop being scared of your emotions.

Anyway, with regards to Bob Mould solo albums, I started and stopped with Workbook. I even found the majority of that album to be too generic sounding, as in ADULT CONTEMPORARY.

I'm not entirely sure why, except that I agree with the assessment of Workbook and have generally not been tempted to further disappoint myself with the more recent stuff. Although I guess that is ridiculously judgmental, since it has been, like, nineteen years (eek) since WB came out. Now that TIAA-CREF (private pension firm, largely for teachers and non-profit orgs) has snagged "See a Little Light" for its television adverts, I'm kind of sick of that too.

Mould claims that his next album, due in winter '09, will be a bit more rockin' and will have him touring with a rockin' band. . . hope so.

and I am so, so wrong. Figures. BSoR did indeed have some great stuff; the gems-to-crap ratio was pretty high. And I forgot that it came out after WB.