2020GQ mix: Nova Mob- The Last Days of Pompeii/Benediction

Grant Hart from Husker Du went on to a number of solo projects- Nova Mob was a short-lived band he formed in the early 90s. They did a concept album about the destruction of Pompeii that ends with this track and Vesuvius erupting. (Side note: In junior high Latin,  we had to translate from the original the eye-witness account of Pompeii’s demise as recounted by Pliny the Younger, who serves as the narrator of this song). It’s one of my all-time favorite albums- I listen to it all the time to this day. It may well be the album I have heard the most times in its entirety, in fact. Hart’s voice has a quality I am always drawn to- a kind of plaintive howl that is characteristic of many of the voices I love. Here it is in service to one manifestation of end times from another.