“Where do we go when faced with such dramatic confusion? Back to basics, back home, back to the garden.” It’s not just a song title it’s also Dinosaur Jr.’s animating principle. “I was looking for a resolution,” Barlow explained. The latter is a survival anthem, and takes its title from a sign Barlow spotted on a shed while driving through Massachusetts: Back to the Garden. As usual, they’re wordier and more cerebral than Mascis’ contributions: a slightly mawkish song of devotion called “You Wonder,” a compelling English-folk pastiche called “Garden.” Otherwise, Sweep It Into Space is classic Dinosaur Jr., straight down to the division of labor: As on each of the band’s post-1997 albums, Barlow is allotted exactly two songs, a tradition so consistent you wonder if it’s baked into a contract. The song is just a few trumpet overdubs away from ska, swapping out the usual Marshall stacks for a digital Mellotron and a Blue Beat-inspired rhythm, with a disjointed but still catchy chorus. The acoustic-electric mix of “And Me” is a nice change from the band’s usually implacable roar, but the jaunty “Take It Back” is the one most likely to raise eyebrows among longtime fans. The band departs from familiar territory when Vile asserts his presence behind the boards, like on the rolling country rock of “I Ran Away,” which features Vile’s 12-string accompaniment. His fiery solos remain piercing as ever, whether he’s wailing over the buzzsaw chords of “I Met the Stones'' and “Hide Another Round” or injecting pyrotechnics into the brooding “To Be Waiting.” Mascis’ skill seems to have only grown during quarantine, which he spent playing Hindu peace chants in solidarity with healthcare workers and jamming along with the Schitt’s Creek theme song. The song’s main refrain, “I ain’t good alone” (easily misheard as “I ain’t gettin’ old”), evokes the simple yearning for musical companionship that has defined this band’s reunion. Sweep It revs up like a used car with “I Ain’t,” a major-chord stomper in which Mascis starts ripping melodic solo licks even before the first chorus hits. It’s the breeziest and most melodically generous of the trio’s reunion efforts, even flirting with power-pop on the compulsively hummable “And Me.” The album brightens the punkish snarl of 2016’s Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not but rarely strays far from Dinosaur Jr.’s familiar guitar-forward racket, another testament to this band’s reliability well into their fourth decade. Partially recorded in fall 2019 with co-producer Kurt Vile, then completed by Mascis during last year’s quarantine, Sweep It Into Space bears little evidence of its protracted creation. They continue to expand their personal universe with Sweep It Into Space, without ever losing their central core.That sense of effortless-if hard-won-chemistry permeates the new album. They have a signature sound as sure as the Stooges or Sonic Youth or Discharge ever did. But there are very few moments where you wouldn't know you were hearing Dinosaur Jr. Lou's songs here are as elegant as always. As is typical, Lou Barlow writes and sings two of the album's dozen tunes and Murph's pure-Flinstonian drumming drives the record like a go cart from Hell. Indeed, Sweep It Into Space is a very cool album. The only extra musician used this time with Kurt Vile. Recorded, as usual, at Amherst's Biquiteen, the sessions for Sweep It Into Space began in the late Autumn of 2019, following a West Coast/ South East tour. And Sweep It Into Space is a masterpiece of zoned dialing. But it would take more than a mere Plague to tamp down the exquisite fury of this trio when they are fully dialed-in. Originally scheduled for issue in mid 2020, this record's temporal trajectory was thwarted by the coming of the Plague. Here is Sweep It Into Space, the fifth new studio album cut by Dinosaur Jr.
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