The uberverdict: Dinosaur Jr - Beyond

One of friendsreunited.com's finest hours came when J Mascis and Lou Barlow rekindled their differences to reform the Dinosaur Jr of old. This special event is marked by their first original line-up offering since 1988's 'Bug' (thats 19 years!) and celebrates the welcome return of the original goobers of grunge. From the first bar of the first track (the aptly titled) Almost Ready the album explodes with a sound that is both extremely reminiscent of their grunge sound of the late 80's (as exhibited on 'Bug' and 'Green Mind') but smooth, warm and cohesive enough to sound a little more updated. It fits that sunny californian frat-boy rock of the American Pie variety so honestly. Did the last 10 years actually happen or did time stand still?

Dinosaur Jr are back and 'Beyond' contains some real belters such as Crumble, We're Not Alone, This All I Came To Do and What If I Knew which prove J Mascis songwriting is as strong as ever, if not stronger than recent releases due to some expertly crafted choruses. His voice echo's with relaxed strength and there are some beautiful extended guitar solos that will undoubtedly have the youtubers donning their tennis rackets come April 21st. But Barlow and Murph's contributions have clearly been important here and Boyond even features the chugging lo-slung Barlow penned and sung numbers Back To Your Heart and Lightning Bulb which actually happen to be the least catchy of all the tracks on the album.

This being said when Mascis laments "This is all I came here to do" he's not lying. And this is the one criticism of almost every one of the past 4 Dinosaur Jr releases. Once again, this album maybe doesn't represent enough of a development in the Dinosaur Jr sound as some may hope for, but with a band like Dinosaur Jr this is only a semi-critiscim. What they do, they do so well. This album will undoubtedly satisfy fans of old and new. As Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork said in his 'Hand It Over' review in '97 'even if this shit's got itself all predictable these days, at least it doesn't suck. The old adage "don't fix it if it ain't broken" comes to mind.' According to musical folklore bands that have been around since the early 1980's shouldn't still be writing music that gets the hoodies groovin' but with Sonic Youth only last year releasing a rather fine offering and now Dinosaur Jr re-emerging with yet another pleasant ditty it begs the question of why these bands are not saluted more-often and given their official place in rock history. Lets hope that this is not just a flash-in-the-pan reunion because the world needs the fuzzy sounds of Dinosaur Jr to keep it spinning on its axis. And with this release it will still be spinning for a few more years to come.

uberverdict: 6.8/10

MP3 download:
Dinosaur Jr: Been There All The Time [From Beyond (Fat Possum) out April 21st 2007]