Dinosaur Jr.

One of the guiding principles of rock is that band reunions are usually better on paper than in execution. Beyond (2007) shattered this notion when Dinosaur Jr.’s original three returned and delivered one of the year’s best albums. Farm is even better. Dinosaur Jr. always succeeded with merging the feel of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse with punk’s insolence and metal’s volume. J. Mascis’ voice and supernaturally loud guitar heroics are the band’s calling card, though things have never worked as magically as they do when founding bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph are on board. Barlow contributes two songs here (“Your Weather” and “Imagination Blind”) that are as great as any of his best work in his own band Sebadoh. Murph might be the only drummer capable of thrashing his kit hard enough to make it audible over Mascis’ pedal stomping and adrenalinized amplifier abuse. The band’s instrumental theatrics, though, never come at the expense of a great song. “Over It” hurtles forward with wah-wah guitar and breathtaking drum rolls, all wrapped up in a winsome melody sung in Mascis’ signature slack drawl. Much like the Weed Giants on the album cover, Farm is Dinosaur Jr. at its best—loose, loud and ready for world domination.