More than most bands,
Dinosaur Jr.
left behind some unfinished business -- not just in one regard but two.
First, there was the notoriously acrimonious dismissal of original
bassist
Lou Barlow after the group's third album,
Bug, just before the band made the leap to the majors, but when the time came for guitarist/singer/songwriter
J Mascis to retire the band's name, he slyly turned the words of his idol
Neil Young upside down, choosing to fade away rather than burn out. After 1997's
Hand It Over,
Mascis
ran out the clock, bringing his contract with Sire/Reprise to a close,
doing some solo acoustic tours before forming the Fog and cutting a
couple records with them without making any real impact outside of his
devoted fans. And since he didn't break beyond his cult,
Dinosaur Jr. seemed to belong solely to the history books -- the band that bridged the gap between
the Replacements and
Nirvana,
the band that was seminal but not widely popular, a band that for
whatever reason wasn't passed down to younger brothers and sisters the
way their Boston compatriots
the Pixies were. Perhaps it was because, unlike
the Pixies, they summed up their times too well, since there was no other alt-rock musician that was as quintessentially slacker as
J Mascis.
With his laconic drawl and anthems of ambivalence, he was a figurehead
for a generation who chose to stay on the sidelines, so sliding away
from the spotlight was a logical path for
Mascis:
he never seemed to really want the fame, so it seemed that he'd be
happier on the fringe, which is where he wound up.
All of this made the reunion of the classic
J-
Lou-
Murph
lineup in 2005 all the more surprising: there may have been unfinished
business, but such a mess seemed inherent to their mystique. But the
group got together to tour in support of reissues of their first three
albums, and defying all logic, the reunion worked -- working so well
that the band decided to record a full-length album,
Beyond, releasing it in May 2007. The very existence of this new album is a surprise, but the real shock is that
Beyond is a flat-out great record, a startling return to form for
J Mascis as a guitarist and songwriter and
Dinosaur Jr. as a band. Although this is from the lineup responsible for
You're Living All Over Me and
Bug, two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release,
Beyond sonically resembles latter-day
Dinosaur
albums; it's not as harsh and it's stylistically varied, ranging from
full-throttle rockers to skipping country-rock and elegiac ballads. In a
way, this sounds like the album that could have been released instead
of
Green Mind if
Lou had stuck around, or if
Dinosaur made the kind of grand major-label debut many expected them to deliver in the days before
Nevermind. Musically, this suits that description --
Beyond
is not a breakthrough or reinvention, it's a consolidation of their
strengths, which means it sounds very much like the band did at its peak
-- but in terms of attitude,
Mascis
could never have made an album as assured as this in 1992, simply
because he never was this confident. Naturally, this deliberate
disengagement was a large part of
Dinosaur Jr.'s appeal: it not only made them sound distinct from their predecessors, but
Mascis'
ambivalence about anything and everything made his guitar virtuosity
and great songs seemed almost accidental, their very casualness proof of
his genius.
Beyond is very different in that for the first time,
Mascis
is assertive about his talent. He sounds engaged -- in music, in life
(as he winkingly acknowledges on the chorus of the opening "Almost
Ready," "C'mon life/I'm almost ready") -- and it gives the album a
powerful sense of purpose that the classic
Dinosaur albums were lacking by their very design. But
Beyond
isn't great simply because it's cohesive; it's great because it's as
bold, vital, and monstrous as their best early work. As soon as the
album crashes open with "Almost Ready," it's clear that
Dinosaur Jr.
has tapped into the essence of their music, and their thundering roar
sounds as vivid and thrilling as it was the first time around. After
that visceral shock fades, it soon becomes apparent that
Mascis'
writing is as forceful and surprisingly melodic as his guitar playing,
and it soon becomes apparent that he's no longer burying his heart or
humor beneath his band's walls of sounds; they're proudly out on
display. This fact is brought into sharp relief by
Lou Barlow's
songs, two tunes that are typically turned inward, yet they're
enlivened by being delivered by this remarkable band, which gives
Lou's songs a backbone they never quite had in
Sebadoh. Plus, the very presence of
Barlow's songs helps emphasize that
Beyond is a full-fledged reunion, the sound of a group making amends and reconnecting with their strengths.
Lou left the band because
J didn't let his songs on
Dinosaur's
records, but now that they're back together, it's a fully collaborative
effort, and the band is stronger for it, as this unexpectedly glorious
reunion proves.
Beyond isn't merely a worthy album from a reunited band, it's simply a great record by any standard.
tags: dinosaur jr, beyond, 2007, flac,
