DINOSAUR JR.
Issue #32
Beyond
By Ashley Harris
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
Dinosaur Jr.’s Beyond may be the only proof needed that 2007 will be the year to finally reclaim the understated pop song.
It took nearly two decades for the original band members to start making music together again after Lou Barlow’s 1989 departure. Lucky for us, the new record picks up where they left off, with the familiar and sorely missed sound tightened but not dramatically altered from their older recordings. The should-be instant hit, “Almost Ready,” starts off the album as evidence that Barlow truly does complete Dinosaur Jr.
The occasional flatness present on the records J. Mascis made during his years of estrangement is nowhere to be heard. Instead, the band’s masterful ability to write songs that are at once epic and totally straightforward allows the new record to invite nostalgia without getting stuck in the past. Some of the song lyrics contain an element of lovesick yearning, but they feel more reflective than anticipatory. As the title of the fifth track, “This is All I Came to Do,” suggests, there’s nothing gimmicky or ironic about the album. Like its predecessors Bug and Little Fury Things, Beyond caters to heavy guitar solos. But there are also several ballads interspersed that highlight Jr.’s much-imitated vocal stylings, which seem to have matured into something hoarser — and possibly hotter — over the years.
Beyond will pull at your heartstrings like the high-school crush you stared at but never talked to. This is music for headphones and summertime drives.
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