One from The Vault: Dinosaur Jr: Beyond
ALBUM REVIEW: Dinosaur Jr's comeback, after ten years away, lit the touch-paper of their flaming hot resurrection. With Beyond, they proved there's still life in the old fossils.
DINOSAUR JR: BEYOND
FAT POSSUM / PLAY IT AGAIN SAM
2007
So here’s something: I love Dinosaur Jr. Ever since the opening chords of Freak Scene stopped my heart at a rare “Alternative Disco” in my adolescence, sometime in 1998/89.
A single almost as perfect as Another Girl, Another Planet - officially the best seven inches ever measured, and what the form was invented for.
Immaculate.
Bug blew me away. From there I went backwards - You’re Living All Over Me - even better. Their debut less so, but still exciting.
Then came the Warners years - and my gradual retreat from the band. They were always there though, lurking, with moments of true genius - Take A Run At The Sun immediately springing to mind.
The albums were all OK - no complaints, but no surprises either.
And then I found, if I was really being honest, that even on the “classic” albums, I would become impatient and skip maybe 25% of the songs. Especially when I got them again on CD; it was too easy to do.
So as I was having a word with myself, I wondered if I had ever considered any of the original run of LPs between 1985 and 1997 truly flawless? It was certainly commonly accepted that they were - and that Dinosaur Jr were untouchable - but were they, honestly?
The answer was no. They weren’t flawless. I’d been lying to myself. I was shocked to discover that despite my deep love for the band, I had accepted them as slightly patchy and forgiven them for it.
But that’s OK. The high points on the albums are mountain high, so I’m more than happy to look past a couple of duds per album.
Interesting that I kidded myself though.
By the millenium, Dinosaur were long gone. We’d had The Fog and a couple of solo albums, but to all intents and purposes, Dinosaur Jr had become historically significant; they were no longer a contemporary force.
And then, ten years after their last record on Warners, Hand It Over, was released, they returned. Out of nowhere; no fanfare, no build up. Just a casual announcement of a new release: Beyond.
Shockingly, almost twice the amount of time has passed, since then, than flashed by while they were away. That freaks me out a bit.
But Beyond heralded a new dawn for the Dinos. It set in motion a string of releases over the course of the next nine years which could genuinely stand up as containing wall-to-wall bangers. Certainly the first three reformation albums don’t have a bad track between them - and there are precious few ringers on the succeeding two albums either.
Revisiting the reformation LPs reaffirms that, as they got older, the band became more capable of reliably delivering sets of songs with no weak spots.
There is a slight side note to this statement; as they have become more adept at releasing albums chock-ful of unskippables, they have equally not delivered single songs as life-affirming as their early highlights.
After all - how can you expect a band to repeat the genius of Freak Scene, Little Fury Things, The Lung or The Wagon? It’s surely unreasonable.
Notwithstanding that fact, the albums have remained consistently great, even if they lack as many iconic and unforgettable moments as the earliest albums do.
It raises an interesting question: which is more preferable: a patchy album with a couple of incredible life-long bangers on it, or a consistently great set of songs that fill an LP, but don’t blow your mind like the old ones did?
There something to be said for both - and although Beyond may not contain an immaculate single, as an album, it was the strongest entire record the band had released to that point.
And I go back to it much more often than Bug. Which might answer the question.
Then, amazingly, they followed Beyond with Farm, which may even beat it. And then, the equally great, but more reserved, I Bet On Sky - which needs a little time to grow, but once it blooms, it blossoms.
One reason that Beyond impresses is because, debut aside, it’s the first time the band really delivers on their initial intent, of creating ‘ear-bleeding country’ for the duration of an entire LP.
The first album definitely showed that potential, but J Mascis was clearly a novice back then. With Beyond, 20 years later, he really has the song-writing skills to deliver the dream. After all, a massive component of country music is its accessibility and its appeal. The songs on Beyond definitely show how the band has learned to adapt, and wring out every ounce of musicality from a riff, song or performance.
The playing throughout is incredible. The solos still go on to the horizon, but without exception, they are constructed - each has movements associated with it and tunes that stick in your ears like morning wax. They’re never just random squealing space-fillers. Murph and Lou have evolved to support the songs in the strongest, most complimetnary way - and it’s no small achievement to do that.
Another point of interest is that in the intervening years, Lou Barlow’s songs have improved too - so that instead of feeling that you’re making a concession for him, as a listener, you end up looking forward to his tunes.
Indeed, Back To Your Heart is a real highlight. It’s a shame Lightning Bulb isn’t included on the vinyl version of the album, because that’s a cracking song too - but they curtailed the songs on the vinyl to only eight. Three of the extra four that are on the CD and digital versions of the album came out on a limited seven inch single with early copies of the vinyl.
Without them, the album is a punchy 35 minutes or so.
I like how Barlow’s songs have a different vibe to J’s - more rumble, more sensitivity. They counteract Mascis’ blistering guitar infernos really well.
They used to just be irritating.
So, excitingly, after a ten year absence - and almost 20 since the “classic” lineup released anything, the real Dinos return with Beyond.
What a thrill.
We launch back into their career with that guitar sound. A winding and blissfully tuneful solo throws us into the swift Almost Ready. It’s a great opener that holds the pressure of The Return on its shoulders with an easy aplomb. It’s classic Dino pop - energetic and joyful. Light-hearted, even. It’s immediate and mood-enhancing. The perfect reintroduction belies the enigmatic self doubt of Mascis’ lyrics:
“Come on, life;
I’m almost ready,
Not right,
Almost ready.”
I wonder how much uncertainty they all felt about returning?
J and Lou managed to put an awful lot of bad blood behind them.
That’s growing up, I guess.
The more sombre Crumble follows - a surprising single - and the Mascis Croak is in full form; laid back, easy. Like the guitar lines. It’s a song that glides blissfully - even when the emotions grow to the bridge, it retains its casual pace and almost sleepy vibe; its hammer-on solo not what you expect when you read those words.
This isn’t Halen. It’s chill.
Pick Me Up has an awkward riff that disperses into a chugging melody the moment Mascis start singing. The verse passes elegantly, across the bridge, and then the chorus soars. Ably assisted by a tubular lead line that sounds more like a theremin than a guitar. Then we drop into a tired and subdued verse in the middle of the songs, which serves as a perfect platform to climb back up from, via one of the best solos on the album.
Pick Me Up is great - but it’s a showcase for J. The second half of it is one elemental solo, recalling Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere; yearning, uplifting, delicate, filthy.
I could listen to an entire album of it, and it’s testament to Lou Barlow and Murph, that they are willing to indulge this kind of structure - which only really starts to lift off as it climbs to an end, over the final eight bars.
Fab.
By way of concession, that indulgence is compensated with the swaying country grunge of Lou’s Back To Your Heart - which, at this point in their career, for me at least, was Barlow’s best.
He’s had some fantastic moments since, on Farm, the next LP, especially.
Lou’s tone is far more submissive. Where J seems sleepy and resigned - but lucid - Barlow is submissive, surrendering and requiring guidance:
“I'll wait for you
Breathe your air
Tend to me
Tell me what you want and I'll try to be
Everywhere”
Side One wraps up with This Is All I Came To Do.
It’s hard to pick a standout track so far. They’re all of such a high standard, but this might be it. Today, at least. And if only for that screeching solo. The song is just so melodic, it’s undeniable and perfect. It even does that cool Freak Scene drop-out thing that just leaves us with the Mascis Drawl, accompanied only with a gently strummed clean guitar. Then another searing solo.
In 1989, the band released a cover of Just Like Heaven, originally from The Cure’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me LP. This Is All I Came To Do has vibes of Robert Smith’s more pop-tastic moments. Remove J’s solos and you’ve got something resembling a great Cure single.
This is why you love Dino.
It’s all I think as the refrain ad-libs to the end.
Side Two departs the starting gates with the energetic stop/start Been There All The Time, that is packed to the gills with hooks. Vocal hooks, guitar hooks, structural hooks… and then a chorus that literally grabs your hand and lifts you up into the heart of a cyclonic solo. It’s anthemic.
It even has Lou backing J up throughout the chorus in a trad, uplifting crowd-pleasing manner.
Who do they think they are?
Boston?
It feels like the band are vibing, live in the studio. I have no idea if they were, but there’s a convincing togetherness to Been There All The Time that made it a great single.
It’s Me goes from a 90s dirty, metally verse riff to a cloud-bursting Eagles chorus - which sounds awful - but is really good, if a little dated. J’s guitar sounds great all the way through; doubly dirty; a thick, syrupy maelstrom.
Although it’s a good song - and great compared to any deep cut on a Warner’s LP, it’s the weakest on the album. One of them had to be. I
t’s important to note that that doesn’t make it crap. It just exists in very esteemed company.
The delicate chicken-licking, shit-kicking picking of We’re Not Alone follows. By far the cleanest and most gentle track on the album, it’s addictive in its tender touch.
The song drops out in the middle for J to repeat a single line, with enough harmonic variance to not only keep it interesting, but also to elevate it to meaningfulness.
“If you say we’re not alone…”
And then a refrain that lasts for the second half of the song, riding the bare back ass of a great ear-bleeding country solo.
It’s a wonderful way to bring the record to a close.
Beyond is really satisfying. Partly because it feels slightly cut short. Its eight songs leave you wanting more. It’s the perfect comeback record.
The CD/Digital versions , with the aadditional tracks, don’t have the same impact.
I’d have swapped out It’s Me for Lou’s Lightning Bulb though, I think.
Odd thing for me to say; I must be mellowing.
Farm would follow this LP, and is the stronger of the two, but it is Beyond that made the statement of return and gave the band the confidence to follow it up so well.
Truth be told, all of the reformation LPs are ace and are all worth picking up, if you see them in your local record shop. But Beyond is the most important; both for the role it plays in their career’s story-arc and as a statement of intent.
My copy is unremarkable. The middleweight black vinyl of the standard Play It Again Same Euro reissue of 2014. I hadn’t entirely returned to buying records in 2007, so only had it on CD upon its release. I covet the original with the seven inch of extra tracks though.
If I play both copies back to back, the vinyl is undeniably richer and creamier. The solos are more elevated and the band sounds thicker, more alive. The CD sounds clear, but thinner.
I know the mixes are the same. Something just happens between the needle and the record that is lost between the laser and the data.
Soz.
I don’t make the rules.
Ave, Funsters!
As strong a 2nd act as any in the history of rock and roll
Dinosaur Jr. are my favourite band, ever! I can forgive some of the negative comments as this is so well written.
I saw them live last year and J Mascis this year. They still rock!
And are producing new music, well J is!