New Music: Dinosaur Jr.: "Almost Ready"
Ten years after the last Dinosaur Jr. full-length, and almost 20 since the last featuring the original lineup-- how could we not be anticipating Beyond? While the album's press release promises an album "not of nostalgia," album opener "Almost Ready" is totally nostalgic, steeped in early 90s college rock sounds-- which is fitting, since for many of us, the early 90s college sound was Dinosaur Jr.-- and here, that cymbal wash, those spacious drums and noodling, distorted guitar reignite the band's classic spark.
So often when bands reunite for the first time in two decades, new material is soured by an attempt to approximate a sound they can't hope to recapture, but incredibly, "Almost Ready" sounds so vintage, and so prime Dino Jr, it's truly a marvel: Didn't these guys, like, hate each other? "Come on now... I'm almost ready," J Mascis intones in his signature strained wail, as if the last decade never happened at all, like all this time he's just been waiting for us.
MP3: > Dinosaur Jr.: "Almost Ready"
[from Beyond; due 05/01/07 on Fat Possum] | [PRE-ORDER]