Beyond

I'm amazed. This album is really really good.

It's the gritted teeth hold-yr-ground-n-stomp that Weirdness promised. I keep wondering if Weirdness will improve in retrospect, as the originals did for me.

I've always, and still worship at the alter of the Stooges (first three) but I can't stomach the latest.
On the other hand Beyond could possibly be the best comeback album I can think of. I expected a few good songs from what I had heard, but I wasn't expecting a great album from start to finish. It really feels like they took the original sound and progressed it.

Who is the artist here. You seem to be talking about the Stooges but I don't know an album by anyone associated with the band called "Beyond". Forgive my ignorance if the answer is so obvious I can't see it...

Dinosaur jr. reformed their original line up a couple of years ago and released an album this month entitled Beyond. It draws comparisons to The Weirdness by The Stooges because they reformed recently and put said album out.

I agree about how good the new record is. It's basically Dinosaur Jr doing what it's always done, but the songwriting is sharper and Mascis has finally turned into the guitar hero he's always been hailed as. And this is the first Dino album on which I think Lou Barlow's tunes are as good as Mascis'.

I too was expecting something decent but nothing special, and I'm genuinely surprised at how good this record is. It's right up there with Bug and Where You Been for me.

I don't hate the new Stooges record, but I don't find myself listening to it much. It's certainly nowhere near as great as the original Stooges records. I do wish "Free and Freaky" would hit rock radio, though.

The albums we have to break in and live with are always the best, and I still like much of the Iggy solo stuff as well as Watt's integrity of economy, but I'm still indifferent to Weirdness. Not huge on sax honking/belating when it's not carrying melody. One of the problems with Weirdness for me is that listener fatigue sets in after just three tracks. "Free and Freaky" is good as is "She Took My Money". Maybe a lesson learned as I continue to hold my breath for Ferry, Manzanera and company.

New Shins not breaking in well nor is Modest Mouse and Arctic Monkeys. No worry, plenty of other stuff.
Kilgour - Far Now
Arcade - Neon
Apples - New Magnetic
Of Montreal - new ep
Rosebuds - Night of Furies
Ted Leo - Living
Amy Winehouse
Aliens - Astronomy for Dogs
Mitch Easter - Dynamico
Carbon Silicon - A.T.O.M.

Conversely, it's only the Lou stuff (Back to Your Heart, Lightning Bulb) on Beyond that I'm not waking up in the morning and looking forward to hearing. But a couple just-OK tracks can make an LP stronger, too.

totaji wrote:

> Dinosaur jr. reformed their original line up a couple of years
> ago and released an album this month entitled Beyond. It draws
> comparisons to The Weirdness by The Stooges because they
> reformed recently and put said album out.


also draws comparisons because j mascis deserves most of the credit/blame for the stooges reunion...

i've listened to BEYOND several times, but it still hasn't made much of an impression. not bad, at least.

A few months ago I asked this board for advice and direction on informative socio/political books to read (life during wartime) and was obliged accordingly.
With that said, and Ted Leo's name dropped here (by everyone's favorite pagan), I must say that Ted delivers much of the same sharp information, but with a healthier and heightened sense of disgust. Exactly what I was looking for.
A truly great album slung out by a real front man who is now sporting a confident, skilled band.



Post Edited (05-17-07 20:29)

Mascis guitar work is definitely a high point of the album.
Last years Lemonheads album has a song called No Back Bone with Evan on vocals, J on guitar and Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez on drums and bass. It's a varitable whos who of 1988. Probably the best song on the album.

Listening to "Almost Ready," I can't help but hear some Richard Lloyd in Mascis's leads late in the song. . . And that, of course, is a great thing.