Sugar (5) – Copper Blue

CD2, Track 17: Dum Dum Boys - written by Pop / Bowie

Mine looks like this version, but the color of the record labels is different.

There is an Instagram page set up to document every known copy of every Polaroid from the special edition copper cover version of the CD. If you or someone you know has one, please consider getting in touch with me to add to the page. You can check it out here: https://www.instagram.com/sugarcopperbluepolaroidproject/

Anyone care to comment on the sound quality for this pressing? I have a UK original, the merge reissue and the RSD 3lp edition. Curious if this one was worth adding to the lineup.

A really interesting pressing. Pressing quality itself is only decent. Mine appears clean but has surface noise. Spindle hole a bit tight. Sound quality is...interesting. Less bright than the reissues, but almost has a bit of a muffled quality to it. Not sure if the original recordings sounded this way or not.

Excellent pressing. Superior to the Merge Reissue that features Beaster on the second LP. Sound is more full, more bottom end, not as trebly. Pretty perfect if you ask me. Haven't compared to an original, but this will be my go-to copy for future spins.

This remaster is quite light on the bass and though the vocals are clear and forward, everything else sounds quite thin. As this album falls squarely within the grunge period, and was originally produced to sound in that style, I'd go for the earlier Ryko repress, or an original in preference to this one. Though those copies have a heavier blanketed sound, they sound more authentic, and more like Mould playing live. On an A/B I just did with the RYKO from 2011 and this remaster, it's a no contest for the balls-to-the-wall grunge of the 2011 repress.

My original copy of this also came with a large poster of the album cover - has anyone else got that?

Very few singer/songwriters in the post-punk world could ever touch Bob Mould. He could utilize loud guitars in ways that just turned into harmonious and beautiful mayhem. Sugar slightly tops where he pioneered noise with Husker Du. Sure they are completely different styles of music, or in reality are they that much different? Sugar never stayed to one entire formula with each album just check out "Beaster" a power house of guitar havoc. "Copper Blue" in my opinion is the most accessible Sugar album. The flow is perfect from start to finish. It tells a story. Bob who always comes across as a shy musician seethes confidently on this record. Sugar could quite possibly have been his true shining moment. It is sad that they disbanded so young.