Listen: Dinosaur Jr. --"I Want You To Know"
9/27 @ Saint Andrews' Hall
(Jagjaguwar)
If you’re not gaga over the guitar and all its awesomely noisy glory, then stop reading this review. Okay, still in? Dinosaur Jr. are the would-be arena rockers who fit better under freeway service drives soundtracking the skateboarders’ rail-grinds or blowing long-haired flannelled-folks further to the back of the lefty/laid-back espresso/bar hybrid with their 6 ft. amps. They’ve been continually re-stomping their sludgey noise-pop back into post-millennial life these few years, Sky being the third post-reunion album for the notable 90’s-Indie (with a seminally capital I)-rockers.
In fact, guitar-haters, come back! You’ll find way more to dig on this, every other track seems tastefully warmed by softer elements: breezy acoustic guitar, chiming piano, shimmering organs, delicately discharged elements of jangly folk and fuzzy psychedelic pop. “Almost Fare” is the preeminent balancer of their past and present, jagged and cathartic with guitar-gutting ruminations here and there, but sweetened by the hazier hums of a massaging organ’s auxiliary airing-out. The wah-wrung-pedal-plodded rollick of “I Know It Oh So Well” almost sounds self-satirically arranged for that nostalgic hook, but it, like the rest of the album, winds up baring their breadth (if you can hear it, that is, sutured under the sandstorm-ing guitar feedback). There’s a few yawning retread-moments; just remember, these chefs spice in heavy amounts of guitar. Pop an antacid.
