Originally released on the New Alliance label, prior to the HUSKERS lengthy association with SST, "Land Speed Record" is everything its' title purports to be, its' 17 tracks coming in at only 28 minutes in length, including 7 tracks (you'd hesitate to call 'em songs) all clocking in at under a minute each.
In that sense, it's an astonishing record, faster and seething with rage like nothing else this side of NAPALM DEATH and their ilk, but compared with the melodic thrills later ridden by Mould and Hart's respective songwriting prowess, it's sludgy, badly-recorded (live) identikit punk, albeit with a frightening fury burning in its' heart.
All group "compositions", the usual 'ardcore concerns are addressed in the song titles - "Push The Button","Big Sky","Data Control" etc are all tied to the regular nuclear threat/"1984"-style subjects so favoured by this genre - although the obscenely fast "Guns At My School" takes on a darker hue after the events at Columbine High and its' copycat incidents.
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"Data Control", sung by a particularly neurotic Hart, is the one thing here with just a murmur of the controlled power later to be committed to vinyl by HUSKER DU, but - even down to its' flag-draped heroes flown home in their coffins sleeve - "Land Speed Record" now seems outmoded and a migraine waiting to happen, despite its' obvious sincerity. Thankfully, winds of change were already blowing in the wings.
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