Weirdness Flows: The Songs of Dinosaur Jr

      110 Does It Float  Dinosaur (1985) Opens with a busy, spindly guitar line that alternates with some frantically astringent strumming - over which we get a vaguely disturbing, abstract lyric: ‘The rain has washed my dog with fear… the toads are running free.’ Halfway through, it explodes into some abandoned shrieking, pauses for a brief passage of proggish guitar picking (reminiscent of mid-70s Rush) before it collapses into cacophony again. Packs a lot into less than 200 seconds.   109 Gotta Know Hand It Over (1997) A laid-back, meditative track that feels a little bog standard until it kicks in just after the two-minute mark with an anguished blast of keening vocals and an urgent, gritty solo. Thereafter, it drifts along dreamily. It’s not a song I’d previously paid much attention to, but with repeated listens, it does get under your skin.   108 I Told Everyone Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not (2016) Driven by a persistent, cascading arpeggio, it sta...

     120 You Wonder Sweep It Into Space (2021) Other than ‘Poledo’ this is the first Lou Barlow song to feature in this list. Like many of his compositions, it’s melancholy, atmospheric and melodically striking. As is often the case with Lou’s songs, J contributes an understated solo, and the restrained drumming is carefully judged. Typically, the lyric is full of portentous imagery: ‘My resistance is an infant in your arms… forget about the holy rollers, there's the heart of God in you.’ There are stronger Lou songs, but as ever, this provides its album with a valuable change of pace and tone.   119 I Know Yer Insane Hand It Over (1997) It’s pleasingly perverse to call two songs on the same album ‘I’m Insane’ and ‘I Know Yer Insane’. The latter is driven by a busily intricate little guitar line with occasional bursts of heavy riffing and spacey lead guitar. J’s vocal flits between gentle croon (‘this was overdue’), anguished groan (‘it can’t be this’) and sharp urg...

    130 Turnip Farm B-side to Start Choppin (1993) It’s not that there’s a huge amount wrong with ‘Turnip Farm’. It’s heavy and intense, features some nicely bluesy soloing and has a certain dreamy quality. But there’s a lack of focus to it; it feels like a germ of a good idea here that hasn’t quite been realised. Around the minute mark, for example, it sounds poised to take off… but then it just doesn’t go anywhere particularly special. If you were being uncharitable, you might say it sounds like an AI-generated Dinosaur Jr song. But it’s probably fairer to say that it’s no more than a perfectly acceptable b-side.   129 Over Your Shoulder Without A Sound (1994) Decent enough album track of the morose, mid-tempo variety, with a suitably uplifting chorus. It doesn't quite soar as you hope it might, but there’s some agreeable guitar work to help it along, most notably the piercing opening to the final solo at 3:18.   128 Quest Dinosaur (1985) Disjointed and astringen...

   140 Entertainment MP3 download only (2013) A cover (for some reason described as a 'remix') of a track by French band Phoenix, who I must confess I’d never heard of. Dinosaur’s laid-back version is, as Stereogum describes, a ‘slow, gorgeously stoned contemplation’ and is most definitely a huge improvement on the original . 139 Creepies Farm (deluxe edition bonus track) (2009) An instrumental that featured in the 2009 skateboarding film Mind Field . The angular, staccato riff at the outset is a delight, but whilst it gallops along enthusiastically, it does feel a little slight. Great opening track for a mixtape though. The video is here ; below are some stills from the film:   138 Mountain Man  Dinosaur (1985) A full-on punkish rocker from the debut. What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for with twitchy energy. Contains the excellent lyric ‘Got to fight off grizzly bears / got to eat, so I grab a few hares’ as well as some enjoyably abandoned wah-wah soloing. ...