Sugar is basically made up of ex-Husker Du guitar and vocalist Bob Mould. Sugar's "File Under: Easy Listening" is a pretty intense record musically - it's essentially just noisy hard rockin' guitars that more or less overshadow the vocals. You can still hear the singer, but you definitely will have no idea what he's saying a good amount of the time. Even though the album is essentially just a bunch of noise, you can still pick out a great sense of melody, rhythm and beat here. I don't have any idea who else to compare Sugar too, so that's a good thing I suppose. I honestly have no idea what else to say here except that most of the songs sound pretty similar to one another. The standout tracks are easily "Gee Angel" and "Your Favorite Thing" as they have "hit" written all over them, though every song here is very good. It's not a classic, but it comes close (I would argue that it's not because all the songs sound relatively similar, and the singer's voice isn't perfect). All in all, however, this is still highly recommended!

Highlights include:
the entire album!

While certainly not as good as "Copper Blue," "File Under: Easy Listening," nevertheless, stands up on its own. I enjoyed reading the fifteen prior reviews, because they're all over the place for what I consider to be an all-around solid album. Additionally, no one seems to agree with me that "Panama City Motel" is clearly the best track on the album, and as good as anything on "Copper Blue."

FU: EL consists of a number of good songs ("Gift," "Company Book," "Believe What You're Saying," and "Explode and Make Up"); one very good song ("Your Favorite Thing" -- elevated by that catchy guitar riff); and one great song (the aforementioned "Panama City Motel"). The album flows well, and is alot more accessible than the preceding "Beaster." As I've said with other bands I've already reviewed, I can't understand why Mould would disband Sugar at this point, after only two albums and an E.P. (and a "B-Sides" album, which doesn't really count), and go solo with largely inferior releases.

I wanted to talk about two songs. First, "Company Book" is the only David Barbe offering for the band (I understand the B-Sides album has others). Although not as good a songwriter or singer as bandmate Mould (and, indeed, most of the previous reviewers don't like this song), I still think Barbe has something to offer, and I would have liked to hear other Barbe songs on future albums that were not to be. In sparse lyrics, Barbe tells of the conformist life of a long-time "company man," with the concluding stanza: "In the epilogue the company man/ Takes his company life with his company hands/ In his revelation he decrees/ Extinction of faceless robots like himself/ Spawned from the company book." Not bad.

As I've mentioned, I feel "Panama City Motel" ranks among the best of Sugar's offering. Like the superb "Hoover Dam" (which, if I had to choose, is my favorite song on "Copper Blue"), the story within the song is told from the perspective of a tourist, this time one without much money in his pocket. Mould's harmonies with himself and acoustic guitar playing were never better. I just love the refrain every time I hear it, about bargaining for a cheap hotel room: "But senor I only have ten dollars/ Can't you give me a room for the night?/ We argue about currency and then/ He says I can stay for the night/ In this Panama City Motel/ I am out on the freeway again." Almost a vignette as opposed a rock song.

Please Sugar, re-unite!

Let's see, for one penny you can get a copy of Gym Bear DJ Bob Mould's blistering guitar riffs on "your Favorite Thing" and "Believe What You're Saying," arguably among his best work since Zen Arcade. Do you, like Mr. Burns, decide to keep the penny? Or do you buy the album and increase your musical horizons with a high delta? No contest here.

i listen to this album because i like my bloody valentine so much and loveless is a little strong and easy to overdose on. there are some song on this album that i can't live without and there's some songs here that i wish i had lived without.
gee angel is cute andi want to like it, but the lyrics kill it. and then there's 'explode and make up' and 'can't believe what you're saying' that kill me. they're fantastic. these are exactly the kind of powerful, heart wrenching songs that make bob mould great.

Sugar shot like a meteor across the musical sky. It burned bright and fast and not many saw it, but the few who did are destined to spend the rest of their days sharing their experience with anyone who will bother to listen. Such was the brief career of Sugar.

After the dynamic COPPER BLUE and the ferocious BEASTER, FILE UNDER: EASY LISTENING was a bit of a letdown. Nevertheless, it still has more than its fair share of classic Sugar songs including the poppy "Your Favorite Thing" (which borrows slightly from My Bloody Valentine's "Blown A Wish"), the singalong "Believe What You're Saying," the dramatic "Explode and Make Up," and the clever toetapper "Gee Angel." David Barbe steps up front (for better or worse) with "Company Book," which, if nothing else, did prove once and for all that Sugar was more than "Bob Mould and The Two Other Guys."

Ultimately, though, Sugar will be best remembered for COPPER BLUE and BEASTER and rightfully so. While FU:EL has plenty of pop, it has very little of the conviction and intensity that made those two albums so memorable. In the meteoric career of Sugar, FU:EL was little more than a vapor trail.