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from uncut, I don’t agree with everything there but what are you gonna do…
Quote:Beyond!We’re often a bit sceptical about reunions, so when the new Dinosaur Jr album turned up at the end of last week, I guess many of us at Uncut feared the worst.
"Beyond", we figured, might be a fairly cynical exigency: something to ensure Mascis, Barlow and Murph could have another lucrative season on the festival circuit after their jaunt in 2005.
But "Beyond" is actually very good indeed, not least because it seems to start up right where this Dinosaur line-up left off, at the end of 1988’s "Bug". All the classic ingredients are in place: that weird mix of hardcore speed and classic rock lethargy; dopey shrugs in lieu of lyrics (has anyone written more unmemorable song titles than J Mascis?); some absolutely shredding solos.
Best of all, there’s an amazing Lou Barlow song here called "Back To Your Heart". Since the trio split up in ’88, Barlow’s work fronting Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion proved that he was a much better songwriter than Mascis. But "Back To Your Heart" is a tantalising glimpse of what might have been, had Barlow’s tremulous confessionals been backed up by the pure slob energy of Mascis’ guitar playing. Kind of sad, in a way.
[Comment from: Roger Tynan [Visitor]
Steady on, Lou Barlow a better songwriter than J Mascis? As Homer Simpson never said: "Seba-Doh!" Still, looking forward to hearing this, you lucky bleeder.
Permalink 2007-02-06 @ 18:40Comment from: Galahad Threepwood [Visitor]
Quite. J kept his head down and chose not make a whole bunch of anaemic indie pop.
Permalink 2007-02-07 @ 22:03
/quote]"Robert " wrote:[img width=120 height=72]http://assets.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/26540.dinojr.jpg?[/img]this is fantastic, Murph looks just like a professor I had at university !
great pic, some planet pins for those lapels…
By the way, isn’t it very cool that the new album cover has "Dinosaur Jr" in the same font as on the first two albums?
Just thought someone ought to comment on that
Quote:It only took one second into "Been There All The Time" and I knew Dinosaur, Jr was back, and back in top form. All I needed to hear I heard in that first second — Murph attacking the drum kit like a young man from New England with something to prove, and that first heavy, sludgy blast out of J’s guitar.Of course, there’s more to "Been There All The Time" than that first second. After all, their forthcoming release, Beyond, is the first new Dinosaur, Jr recording in ten years, and the first to feature the original Dinosaur, Jr lineup of J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph since 1988’s Bug. Since Dinosaur, Jr have been active on the Alternative Rock reunion circuit for a while now, following another Amherst band, The Pixies, in earning some much overdue paychecks, there is the nagging concern that the reunion album is nothing more than a money grab. I’d answer that worry with a title from their back catalog, "I Don’t Think So."
"Been There All The Time" rocks with a passion that would be hard to fake. I haven’t heard solos like this coming out of J’s guitar since 93’s Where You Been. They’re big, loud, fuzzy, wailing, epic, and emotive blasts from rock ‘n’ roll’s past. Additionally, for a band that’s always played it loose and loud, and for a band who haven’t recorded together in nearly 20 years, they sound remarkably tight. Then, consider the fact that Barlow and Mascis didn’t exactly have an amicable separation after the initial split, and it’s all the more impressive that they’ve come back rockin’ this hard. Man, that release day of May 1st can’t come soon enough.
http://littleradio.typepad.com/little_radio/2007/02/dinosaur_jr_pos.html”>http://littleradio.typepad.com/little_r … r_pos.html
Quote:Dinosaur Jr haven’t missed a beat while recording their new album Beyond. The band has posted two new tracks, "Almost There" and "Been There All The Time" from their forthcoming album, due May 1st on Fat Possum.love that guitar J has
That guitar is J’s signature Jazzmaster, it looks like Lous bass is one of those daisy rock ones. Pretty funny stuff.
I have listened to the new album and I must say it is quite good, having been 10 yrs since the last official album. Both Lou songs are great. Much of the stuff sounds like latter day Dinosaur (which I kinda figured), however the ‘Almost Ready’ is very YLAOM ish… my review is 3.5 stars out of 5.
Quote:keeping with my tendency to favor the diminishing returns of longtime favorites over the constantly invading hordes of indie rock hypes of dubious quality, Beyond is, along with other slabs by oldsters Sloan and Ted Leo, one of my favorite albums of this year so far. Thing is, though, even though You’re Living All Over Me is my favorite Dinosaur Jr. record, I don’t have any particular reverence for the J/Lou/Murph lineup. In fact, I love a couple of the albums that J did by himself (the last official Dinosaur album, Hand It Over, and the first Fog album, More Light) just as much, sometimes even more simply because of J’s great drumming (perhaps for the same reason that like Foo Fighters more than Nirvana; as a drummer and wannabe songwriter, I have a lot of respect for guys who can bring both skill sets together successfully). This album will get a lot more attention than it would’ve if J had recorded most of the same songs as The Fog, but I probably would’ve checked it out and enjoyed it either way. That’s not to discount Lou’s contributions, though; he sings 2 songs, and J even lets him get one on the first half of the album for once! I’ve never really spent any amount of time listening to any of Barlow’s primary projects, although I like his voice enough that I’d probably receptive if I heard the right Sebadoh album or whatever. "Back To Your Heart" is a definite standout of this album, and works way better in the context of J’s songs than, say, "Lose" does on YLAOM."Pick Me Up" is the longest song on the record, and anything past 6 minutes in the J Mascis catalog promises a looooong guitar solo at the end. But for once, he actually fills up that running time with a fair amount of structural twists and turns. The first couple minutes just kind of chug along, without as strong a hook as other songs on the first half of the record like "Crumble" and "This Is All I Came To Do." But then J lets loose a lead guitar line with a weird high-pitched effect that doesn’t really sound like the usual pedals he employs on his records, although I think he used a similiar sound on some of the older Dinosaur songs when I saw them at the 9:30 Club a year and a half ago. Then, there’s a tempo change, and some interesting stuff going on toward the end that can’t actually be categorized as J soloing his brains out over a midtempo jam (but, of course, does include that). I mean, it actually comes to a pretty awesome climax at the very end instead of just fading out. There’s plenty of other good stuff on the record — "I Got Lost" is a nice return to "Flying Cloud"-type acoustic grandeur — but it’s really the only moment that felt like a suprise. Not that reunion albums (or anything by J Mascis, for that matter) are places to go looking for surprises.
a friend of mine sent me a burned copy in the mail and i couldnt resist once it was in my hands. my evaluation is that i love 7 of the songs and the other 4 are ok, but dont scream to me as much. songs i love:
2) Crumble!!!
3) Pick Me Up!!!
4) Back To Your Heart!!!
7) It’s Me!!!
We’re Not Alone!!!
10) Lightning Bulb!!!
11) What If I Knew!!!Kracked,
How funny, you favorite 7 tracks are my favorite as well. I usually skip the other 4 songs.
I hope this time around the lyrics are included I know this hasn’t been the case in the past, just some wishfull thinking I guess.
Can’t believe you guys don’t have "Almost Ready" on your list. Other wise, I think my favorites are pretty close to yours. I really like "We Are Not Alone."
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