Nova Mob-The Last Days of Pompeii (1991)
Artist: Nova Mob
Title: The Last Days of Pompeii
Label: Rough Trade
Sell Date: 4/25/26
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold: 4/15/26 N/NM $14.99
Low: $1.00
Median: $5.12
Average: $5.83
High: $14.99
Current low price: $2.88 (Australia) $5.00 US
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 17
Have/Want: 241/37
Where Sold: Tucson, AZ
Time It Took To Sell: 16 years
Where and When Bought: Boston, Nuggets used around $8 Year of release
Gwiz-gau Grade: B
Sad To See It Go: No
This is going to publish the night after I see Grant Hart's equivalent post-Hüsker counterpart Sugar, so good editorial timing for me! Not to be confused with the pre-existing Boston band, Grant Hart began issuing releases in 1991, a year before Sugar got going. Both Bob & Grant came out of their breakup issuing albums under their own name before deciding they wanted to be part of a moniker again.
In Bob's case, it was a step up, in Grant's it was a step down. Grant's Intolerance album was a singularly great one, better than Bob's initial solo efforts. Unfortunately, Nova Mob didn't hit those highs. This band debut had a handful of great tracks. Two were pre-issued on an EP: the title track and the EP's namesake "Admiral of the Sea." So nice it appears here in the rocking version on the EP and a slow version. There is some sort of loose mariner concept for this album with intros and outro, but Bob's songs were best at this point with themes of breakup and dissolution.
That said, there were some good tracks I forgot about and some I never noticed for an album I wanted to like but never really did start to finish. This wasn't something that grew on me like the first Hüsker Dü, major label album Candy Apple Grey. This was more like Bob's Black Sheets of Rain. There were definitely hints of life and strong material, but with bar set high over the years more was expected.
I would say there is one great song here I missed, with a strum right out of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" called "Where You Gonna Land (Next Time You Fall Off Your Mountain)." That one is followed by another good one, "Over My Head" I remembered "Getaway (Gateway In Time)" earlier in the album and that has also held up over time. That one has bit of "White Rabbit" in it's melody before it takes the piss and speeds things up. "Wehmer Von Braun" into the NASA speak laden "Space Jazz" also has it's charms. These tracks made me bump the grade up from a B- at the very last minute but I harbored enough of an urge not to relisten grudge not to give this a B+.
Reassessing a life's catalog post mortem didn't change much in this album's instance.
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
Hüsker Dü-Metal Circus (1983)
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