Weirdness Flows: The Songs of Dinosaur Jr (21-30)
Before we head into the top 30, a quick note...
Along the road, inevitably, I've had quite a few comments along the lines of, "What?!? xxx should definitely be in the top 5/10/20'' etc. Which is only to be expected and is absolutely fair enough; I expect I'd be saying exactly the same sort of thing if I was reading someone else's list.
One other type of comment that has cropped up frequently, however, has been the suggestion that I must have 'come to the party late' or 'clearly only got into the band in 20xx'. Whilst I do sort of understand how some might come to that impression, it's not actually true. I fell in love with Dinosaur Jr in the summer of 1989. I was a student who needed somewhere to crash for the summer, and ended up staying in a friend-of-a-friend's room. He had an impressively large record collection, and so I bought a stack of C90s and set to taping: Bug and YLAOM were among the first LPs I copied, and that's where it all began...
I believe that Bug and YLAOM are, overall, the band's strongest albums (there'll be a post re my favourite LPs once this countdown is complete), but I do value all eras of their work.
Anyway, let's crack on with 21-30...
30 Kracked
29 Raisans
You're Living All Over Me (1987)
Two nicely scuzzy and discordantly raucous cuts from You're Living All Over Me. ‘Kracked’ has a catchy hook (‘Come on babe…’), whereas ‘Raisans’ is more abstract and angular. Both feature lots of exciting fluctuations in tempo and dynamics. Although there’s a lot to admire about the simple directness of ‘Kracked’, ‘Raisans’ is a little darker and more interesting lyrically (‘You're allowed to torture me… Now you'll have to decide the fate of my sanity’) and has an intriguing breakdown filled with disturbingly ghostly, muffled voices.
28 How'd You Pin That One On Me
Green Mind (1991)
A gloriously furious thrash, framed around a thunderous volley of a riff, smeared with woozy slide guitar. J’s vocal is fabulously snotty, especially in those lines he delivers in a slightly off-kilter fashion (‘Haven't even done it yet’; Do you slap that glaze on every guy you see?’). And whilst rhyming ‘chuck it’ with ‘duck it’ might seem inadvisable, the disdainful way he mutters ‘get me a bucket’ is priceless. To round it off, after a brief pause just over three minutes in, you’re treated to a thrillingly feral solo.
27 Sludgefeast
You're Living All Over Me (1987)
Sabbath meets shoegaze with a touch of prog thrown in. Plus a Sonic Youth style meltdown followed up by a garage punk riff with a fiery solo. What more could you want?
26 Back To Your Heart
Beyond (2007)
The first of Lou Barlow’s two songwriting contributions to Beyond is a brooding, hypnotic affair driven by a pummelling bass line. There’s a murky, layered darkness to it that’s emphasised by Barlow’s melancholy vocal and the enigmatic imagery of the lyric (‘bones of a hypocrite… ashes stain’). It never strays into being a dirge though, enlivened by Murph’s consistently judicious fills; it’s also lifted by the note of optimism in the last verse: ‘Think about the future let the past unwind / 'cause you are the shining sun’.
25 Don't
Bug (1988)
Bug, as Michael Azerrad comments in Our Band Could Be Your Life, ‘reserves its most harrowing psychodrama for… a dirge-metal noise orgy’ in which Lou Barlow, with impressive if disturbing intensity, repeatedly shrieks ‘why don’t you like me?’ You certainly can’t fault Lou’s commitment, whether or not it’s actually true that his performance left him coughing up blood.
24 Green Mind
Green Mind (1991)
The second side of Green Mind is a little hit and miss, but here, J most successfully nails the ‘slacker rock with a bit of funky shuffle’ he seemed to be going for. The verse is crisp and the chorus is dreamily uplifting; unlike some of the surrounding tracks, the drums are taut and free of 80s-style affectations.
23 Repulsion
Dinosaur (1985)
The highlight of the debut album is a beautifully ragged and melodic pop song; the sort of thing that Pavement (and others) spent most of their career trying to emulate.
22 I Want You To Know
Farm (2009)
Thus far, I may well have overused the phrase, ‘crunchy riff’, but it’s hard to avoid it here. What might seem at first glance like a meaty if workmanlike track is elevated by a joyfully rousing chorus (Hey!...) and an effervescent solo that makes you feel as if J has been touched by the very hand of God.
21 Let It Ride
Bug (1988)
A seething, torrid blaze of relentless aggression, underpinned by a rugged bass line and lacerating chords. J pulls off his trick of sounding simultaneously furious and indifferent with aplomb; the slide guitar and oddly discordant, otherworldly backing vocals provide a carefully judged change in momentum; the launch of the double-tracked solo in the final minute is electrifying. A thrilling ride.
Comments
Post a Comment