Hüsker Dü “Candy Apple Grey” released 35 years ago this month, March 1986. Today, March 18th, would have been Hüsker Dü’s drummer and co-songwriter Grant Hart’s 60th birthday (b. 1961). Candy Apple Grey was Hüsker Dü’s fifth album and their first on a major label (Warner Bros.), kind of officially marking their final break from punk to power pop/alternative rock. It’s still hard-rocking and a bit thrashy but way more melodic and poppy; even the acoustic guitar and orchestral forest sounds (“Too Far Down” written by Bob Mould) make an appearance. The album went to #140, though despite its poor showing on the charts, singles like “Sorry Somehow” and “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely” (both written by Hart) got play on college radio, the video for “Don’t Want to Know…” even aired on MTV. Those two tracks are some of my favorites on the album, plus I also like the Hart-penned “Dead Set on Destruction”  and Mould’s “Eiffel Tower High.”  But, not to speak ill of the dead, I really do not like Hart’s “No Promise Have I Made” – it’s super-whiney-goes-screamy and overblown with emotionality.