Weirdness Flows: The Albums

               

To round things off, after ranking all of Dinosaur Jr's songs individually, I'm going to consider their work by album. Obviously, this has been done several times before, for example by Stereogum, diffuser.fm, vice.com (J's own ranking) and Glide. There's a summary of these other lists below.

Before I did any spreadsheet calculations, I wrote down my 'gut feeling' order - after all, albums are often more (or less) than the sum of their parts. As it happened, the mathematical outcomes* matched my original list - and they helped me clarify a knife-edge judgement between my 4th and 5th place.

*It wasn't especially complex: the no.1 song got 171 points (171 being the toal number of tracks); second place got 170, and so on. I then did an average score for each LP. I've included this score (in brackets) so you can see the gaps between them.

12 Sweep It Into Space (2021) (70)

There's no such thing as a bad Dinosaur Jr album, but something has to come at the bottom of the list. Sweep is certainly not without its highlights (the sprightly 'Hide Another Round', Lou Barlow's achingly beautiful 'Garden') but overall it's just a little over-reliant on generic rockers and lightweight poppy tunes.

11 Without A Sound (1994) (71)

Whilst it's solid enough overall, other than 'Feel The Pain' the album is a little lacking in highlights: less than half of the tracks made the top 100; only 'Feel The Pain' was in the top 50. There's decent fare like the pugnacious 'Grab It' and the muscular 'Get Out Of This' as well as the delicate 'Seemed Like The Thing To Do', but there are also several tracks where J's trademark laid-back delivery tips a little too far into soporific listlessness. 

10 Dinosaur (1985) (82)

You can't fault the young band for their ambition and inventiveness. Their debut veers between bursts of twitchy energy and ragged introspection, perhaps best exemplified by 'Does It Float', which feels like the rough drafts of three or four different songs tossed into a blender. There's a sense of an inexperienced band throwing multiple ideas at the studio wall and seeing what sticks, and whilst this creativity doesn't always knit into something entirely coherent, the album is never less than engaging and interesting.

9 Hand It Over (1997) (91)

A solidly consistent album (all but four songs were in the top 100, and two of those fell only just short) but also one that's characterised by a clear effort to diversify and broaden the sonic palette. There's a spot of banjo on 'Gettin' Rough', for example, as well as trumpet, flute and (possibly) Mellotron and violin elsewhere; we even get some entertainingly squiggly sci-fi effects on 'Nothin's Goin' On'. After the ever-so-slightly lacklustre Without A Sound, Hand It Over sounds like a genuine attempt to kick the band back into life. And although it's a little short of the killer tracks needed to elevate it to the higher reaches of this list, it does contain the awesomely epic 'Alone'.

8 I Bet On Sky (2012) (94)

After two very strong post-reunion albums, I Bet On Sky felt like the foot had been taken off the pedal, just a little: although it contains the majestic 'Watch The Corners', it just doesn't quite hit the heights of its two predecessors. That said, it's still full of compelling tracks like the dreamy 'See It On Your Side' and the thunderingly vibrant 'Pierce The Morning Rain'. And although it's not without its minor flaws - the wah-wah on 'I Know It Oh So Well' could perhaps have been reined in a little, and it might have been nice to see this more interesting arrangement of 'Almost Fare' on the LP - you can't really fault it for consistency.

7 Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not (2016) (105)

As I mentioned in this post, a few commenters on my ranking list have suggested that I must have 'come late to the party.' As I explained at the time, this isn't actually the case, but I can see where that impression might have come from - and I'm sure my love of Glimpse was one of the factors in this interpretation. But, c'mon... it's a cracking album, from the thrillingly crunchy opening riff of 'Goin Down' to the bruisingly emotional conclusion of 'Left/Right'. Admittedly, the so-so 'Mirror' is a weak spot, but apart from that, we're treated to gloriously uplifting melodic punk-pop ('Tiny'), ragged country-tinged melancholy ('Lost All Day') and a brace of songs that arguably represent Lou Barlow's most telling contribution to a Dinosaur Jr album. 

6 Green Mind (1991) (106)

An album that I bought on the day of release and played to death and (largely) loved to bits at the time. And yet, in retrospect, it's frustratingly uneven. There's no doubt that it contains many of the band's greatest moments (half of the tracks feature in my top 30), such as the adrenaline rush of 'The Wagon', 'Blowing It / I Live For That Look's sprawling, jagged ennui and the snotty derision of 'How'd You Pin That One On Me'. 

But even setting aside the flaccid 'Flying Cloud', there are times (especially in the second half) where the 'laid-back slacker groove' approach falls a little flat. This was the first Dinosaur Jr album where J played the majority of it himself, and I think that it shows at times. Impressive as his almost-one-man-band efforts are, it sometimes results in a slightly dislocated sound that makes Green Mind an often impressive rather than a truly great album.

5 Farm (2009) (108.5)

I've included the first decimal place in the score here to emphasise how close Farm and Beyond are in my estimation - as I mentioned above, I was confident in my placings otherwise, but had to let the maths make the final decision here.

As if fortified by the positive reception of Beyond, the band sound stridently confident on Farm. Tracks like 'I Want You To Know', 'There's No Here' and 'Pieces' brim with focused exuberence, and there's a haughty swagger to 'Ocean in The Way' and 'Friends'. There's also room for thoughtful introspection ('Plans') as well as two extravagently expansive pieces in 'Said The People' and 'I Don't Wanna Go There', the latter of which, as I commented in my top ten post, 'is replete with all manner of majestic soloing.' 

Lou Barlow's two offerings are, as usual, strikingly brooding and intense, although perhaps not quite as effective as those on Give A Glimpse. My lowest-ranked song on Farm was 'Over It', but even though it's another where it might have benifited from the wah-wah being turned down a notch or two, it still has a thrashy energy and a dreamly melodic refrain. 

4 Beyond (2007) (109.1)

Reunions can often be disappointing: dispiriting, 'squeeze out the money while we have the opportunity' affairs that have little to do with creativity or genuine enthusiasm. But Beyond is not just different to that, it's the antithesis. It's the sound of three musicians who complement each other perfectly returning to what they do best. There's an overriding sense of common purpose, an unrelentling focus on churning out blistering, riff-heavy tracks with a healthy dose of panache and jubilation. 

'Almost Ready' and 'Been There All The Time' are hooky-riff-married-with-catchy-melody-plus-squalling-solo perfection; 'Crumble' has a stately, desperate beauty; the dark, hypnotic 'Back To Your Heart' is, to my mind, Lou Barlow's best Dinosaur Jr song. The album's Achilles' heel is the mundane slow number 'I Got Lost', but overall Beyond is a thrilling 'good to be back' ride.

3 Where You Been (1993) (121)

Like Green Mind, an album that I bought on the day of release and played endlessly thereafter. However, it has aged a whole lot better than its predecessor. It takes some of the approaches found on Green Mind and hones them into something much more focused and effective. With four entries in my top 20 (two of which were top three), and seven out of the ten tracks appearing in the top 50 (plus 'Drawerings' at #51), it achieves an impressive consistency. 'Hide' and 'Not The Same' are by no means bad songs, it's just that the former lacks focus, and the latter outstays its welcome. 

2 You're Living All Over Me (1987) (125)

All the blistering energy, exciting shifts in tempo and dynamics, thrillingly scuzzy riffing and angular aggression that were present on the debut, are here distilled into something that is much more satisfyingly coherent. The album never loses the wild, inventive spirit of its predecessor, but hones it into a jagged, swirling sprawl that's full of exhilirating highlights. 'Sludgefeast', for example, is an intoxicating blend of Sabbathesque riffing, dreamy shoegaze, Sonic Youth dissonance and garage punk thrash - it's representative of how successfully the album fuses a range of influences plus a growing sense of identity into something startlingly, refreshingly original. 

1 Bug (1988) (133)

J himself is a not a fan of the album, although his view - as he recognises - is coloured by the circumstances of its recording ('The time when it was done was a bummer. So it reminds me of that.') But whilst you have to acknowledge and empathise with his perspective, it remains the case that Bug builds on the progress made from the debut to You're Living All Over Me and refines it into something truly special. Awash with melody and cacophony, detachment and belligerence, taut focus and ragged abandon, Bug still - nearly 40 years down the line - still has the capacity to surprise, captivate and transport you to a universe where all that matters is the perfect union of loud guitars, languidly drawled vocals and effortlessly bewitching melodies.

For those of you who like a visual representation...

Other Ranking Lists:

And so, that concludes the blog. Thanks once again for reading.

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