Dinosaur Jr.
Beyond
Fat Possum
2007
Rating: 8.5 baby brontosaurus teeth out of 10
I’m sure like most music fans, you’ve sat around bored and daydreamed about “what if” one of your favorite bands got back together. For me, this mostly revolved around The Misfits, Archers of Loaf, Polvo, The Smiths, The Clash (before Joe Strummer died), and Dinosaur Jr. The sad truth is that when these reunions actually do happen, it rarely sounds as good as it did “back in the day”, and you’re left a little disappointed. Even worse is when a reunion is claimed but half of the original band fails to show and you get a bunch of random fillers playing the part of your childhood heroes. There are the odd exceptions like Wire and Mission of Burma who have had successful reunions, but I’d guess the batting average is pretty low. But you still keep hoping and hoping that former band mates put away the differences that tore them apart and rejoin forces like Voltron. A non-shitty Voltron that is, cause that was a pretty shitty cartoon and toy in actuality.
Well, Dinosaur Jr. are back, and I'm stoked. And we’re not talking the later era of Dino here – this is the real deal original line-up with Murph on drums and Lou Barlow (who has also recently reformed Sebadoh) on bass and additional vocals. The songs they’ve written for this album sound like they were pulled straight from a time capsule labeled “1990”, and I mean that in the best possible way – fans of the band’s glory days will not be in the least bit disappointed in the new material. Songs like “Crumble” and “Been There All The Time” I would already include in any greatest hits package for the band, and “Back To Your Heart”, sung by Lou, would probably find a place on there as well. I can’t imagine anyone who grew up on Bug and You’re Living All Over Me not professing this record as one of the best releases of 2007.
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