Known for being the pop-oriented member of the ‘80s indie-punk band Hüsker Dü, Grant Hart has shown glimpses of that pop mode in his solo career—and 2013’s The Argument takes on all challengers. The 20-track album is said to be a concept album based on Milton’s Paradise Lost and William S. Burroughs’ sci-fi re-imagining of it, Lost Paradise. Close listening reveals that Satan can be quite a crooner when he gets around to singing as Hart, and the songs on the album’s first half do have a shuffling, show-tune groove in tunes such as “If We Have the Will,” “I Am Death," and, especially, “Sin” and “Underneath the Apple Tree.” Elsewhere, “Letting Me Out” filters Buddy Holly through Hart’s performance. For those seeking hints of former Hüsker power, there’s the album’s second half, where we join fallen angels Adam and Eve in progress. “Glorious” rolls through like a demo for Flip Your Wig. With a raunchy harmonica, “For Those Too High Aspiring” captures Hart’s hippie side.