{"id":753417,"date":"2026-08-29T09:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753417\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T09:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:12:13","slug":"dinosaur-jr-there-near-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753417\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur Jr.: There Near Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

As worthy as Dinosaur Jr.<\/a>\u2019s output has been since their mid-2000s reformation, the group\u2019s work has been tinged with self-consciousness. Where their first three LPs<\/a> hedged the band\u2019s heroic chops behind ramshackle song structures and slovenly production, post-comeback albums like 2009\u2019s Farm<\/a> and 2012\u2019s I Bet on Sky<\/a> buttoned the flannel a bit, mirroring the cleaner, more streamlined sound of their \u201990s output<\/a>, which was mostly J Mascis<\/a>\u2019 work. By domesticating the Big Muff-induced guitar feedback and leaning into longer songs and the occasional touches of prog<\/a>, they proved that a bona fide classic-rock trio had been hiding beneath the surface all along. But that polish sometimes gave way to the excessively quirky aimlessness that marked 1997\u2019s Hand It Over before Mascis put Dinosaur Jr. on hiatus. Their last album, 2021\u2019s Sweep It Into Space<\/a>, maintained the band\u2019s high floor for consistently catchy alt-rock, but its tidy stabs at Kurt Vile<\/a>-assisted psychedelia sometimes strayed a bit too far from the band\u2019s core of slacker disorder.<\/p>\n

On There Near, Dinosaur correct course by shedding any self-seriousness they\u2019ve accrued over the past two decades, and instead wallowing happily in the muck of their formative years. Tracked with the same vintage amplifier used on their homemade debut album, the new material is the messiest and most blown-out music they\u2019ve made this side of the millennium. It\u2019s not quite as filth-caked as, say, Bug, but the effortlessness of it recalls the earlier era, prizing poppy melody and immediate self-expression over grandiosity. The best-loved Dinosaur Jr. records intensify the contrast between Mascis\u2019 sheepish vocal demeanor and the raw transparency of the band\u2019s playing, and those two elements are back in optimal sync here.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

The combination is particularly devastating on the bridge of \u201cNo Friends,\u201d where Mascis\u2019 groaned admissions of loneliness unfold alongside an ascending guitar lead that sounds as though it\u2019s sobbing in pain. His soloing is particularly creative here (and throughout the album), breaking from his comfort zone to leap high up on the neck and sacrifice wonkiness for emotion. It\u2019s less Guitar Center demo station than half-finished basement. Dinosaur\u2019s signature Neil Young<\/a>-inspired chord progressions sound even more melancholic than usual, thanks to the descending basslines on tracks like \u201cEverything at Once\u201d and \u201cRead the Room.\u201d The latter is accented by a tasteful flange effect, serving as a reminder of Mascis\u2019 affinity for the Cure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo One\u2019s Ready\u201d is the stronger of There Near\u2019s two obligatory Lou Barlow<\/a> contributions, and it\u2019s perhaps the song most in keeping with the record\u2019s atavistic ethos. Backed by a shambling rhythm section and jangly chords, it sounds like an alternate-reality Dinosaur that blew up before they were Jr., soldiering on in the acid-fried direction of \u201cSevered Lips<\/a>.\u201d \u201cBlowin\u2019 Up\u201d is only near-miss here: Its double-tracked chorus is overwrought, and some lines (\u201cThere’s nothing quite as bad as a bored edgelord\u201d) recall Sebadoh<\/a>\u2019s tendency to be painfully on the nose. Fortunately, it\u2019s bailed out by its backing track, which is decorated with strange spurts of static and funky hammer-ons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As worthy as Dinosaur Jr.\u2019s output has been since their mid-2000s reformation, the group\u2019s work has been tinged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[375,96,128,56,54,55,307],"class_list":["post-753417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}