The last two picks on this list have been from bands that you recognize.  While Guns N’ Roses and Pearl Jam may come from two different sides of the opposite coin – with Guns N’ Roses being arguably the most famous hair metal band and Pearl Jam being a cornerstone of grunge.  But the point is made: you recognize these bands.  This sets the tone for the top five of this best list: while the bands may not be of the same subgenre, the bands that made the top five of the 1992 best list represent the titans of rock…

…Except for this one fluke chart success by a group of indie rock misfits led by a gay guy from Upstate New York.  Sometimes things are like that.

“Helpless” – Sugar

Modern Rock
#5 peak (October 17-24, 1992)
#29 year-end, 13 weeks on chart

I swear this is a misprint.  Bob Mould and his bands never charted.  In his four decade long career in the music industry, Mould has only one true hit song: Husker Du’s “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely,” and just two chart successes: his 1989 debut solo single “See A Little Light” and this.  But I am so glad that I was wrong about this band never having chart success because “Helpless” is a three minute sugar rush of a song.

Then again, if Sugar were to ever have a hit, it would have been in this year.  After Husker Du broke up in 1988, Bob Mould released his first solo albums at the turn of the decade before forming Sugar early in 1992 with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis.  Unlike with Husker Du, a punk-influenced band that deliberately challenged listeners with fast-paced songs with crude production values, Sugar was mid-tempo and far more polished, even if the guitars still sounded like they could take down a house.  At the same time, Nevermind exploded on the scene and suddenly, indie bands had a chance to go mainstream.  Sugar’s debut album Copper Blue ended up selling 300,000 copies.  Not a lot considering that it was the nineties and every album went gold in the nineties, but still the most units pushed by a Bob Mould album.  Copper Blue is an excellent album, filled with great songs from front to back: the roaring guitar chords of the opener “The Act We Act,” the heavenly organ and jangly acoustics of “Hoover Dam,” and “A Good Idea,” a deliciously evil tale of a man having his head shoved into the water, effectively ending his life.  I thought for a while “A Good Idea” was the best song from the album, due to its evil bass and its seemingly deadpan discussion of the murder.  But then I remembered this, the most pop-oriented song Sugar ever wrote.

As an album that is critically acclaimed but still woefully underrated, it isn’t entirely clear what “Helpless” is about, with the best clue I received coming from The Quietus, which claimed there is “confusion at the root of the song.”  My best guess is that the song is about a breakup, with the narrator coming to the conclusion that they weren’t right for each other.  Listening to lyrics like…

And now you find as time goes by
You’re left with nothing meaning much

…Leaves me to believe that the couple in the song weren’t right for each other.  Honestly, the lyrics aren’t worth as much discussion as the music in this case, in part because of what it represents.  After mainly writing about subjects that related to himself in both Husker Du and his solo career, Mould has said that in Sugar he wrote song to relate to as many people as possible.  In order to drive home the point, the video to “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” ended with Mould holding up photos of various same-sex couples, including him with his then-boyfriend, but also several heterosexual couples as well.  It does achieve this philosophy, which just means we get to judge the music and melodies more.  And the music on “Helpless” is amazing. 

As with My Bloody Valentine, Sugar juxtaposed pretty melodies with loud and scathing guitars.  But unlike My Bloody Valentine as well as Husker Du, Sugar made songs that sounded like they were meant for radio.  And “Helpless” is the perfect marriage.  Mould’s distorted G-F-C-D# chord progression, combined with Travis’s steady drumming, makes this the perfect song for a giant festival crowd to start jumping up and down.  When you hear “Helpless,” you can just see the crowd endlessly pogoing in the mosh pit.  Add to that Mould’s main riff, slowly rising up the D pentatonic scale, and you have to ask: have punk misfits ever sounded so good, so catchy, or so infectious?

And that is the essence of “Helpless,” really.  It’s an embarrassingly catchy and powerful song that’s guaranteed to stick in your mind.  Not only had Mould not lost any bite musically with his crushing rhythm guitar, but his melodies were stronger than ever and now truly had a chance to shine after years of being secondary.  All I can say is whenever this song comes on, you’re helpless to sing along.  Sorry for the lame pun.

UP NEXT: The quartet of legendary songs ending this list begins at #4.

SOURCES

Ramirez, AJ. “Sugar: Copper Blue / File Under: Easy Listening (Deluxe Editions).” Pop Matters 3 August 2012. Web. 27 August 2022. Information gathered from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mould.

Marszalek, Julian. “Copper Blue 20 Years On: Sugar’s Bob Mould Interviewed.” The Quietus 31 May 2012. Web. 27 August 2022 https://thequietus.com/articles/08937-sugar-copper-blue-bob-mould-interview.

Chords taken from Ultimate Guitar: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/sugar/helpless-chords-346575
Author’s note: I switched one of the chords because it sounds more accurate to the song in my opinion.

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Genius

Photo of band from Spotify