- Music
- 10 Jun 09
Slacker gods maintain holding pattern 20 years on
The cover art of Farm depicts giant grass men, carrying little girls high off the ground as they walk through the smoke wafting from the city’s chimneys. Is there a hidden theme there perhaps?
Since reforming in 2005, Dinosaur Jr. might feel like they’ve something to prove.
Farm confirms that they’re still loud, but J. Mascis sings as if his mind’s not on the job, accentuating the aimlessness of songs like ‘Plans’, which proclaims: “I got nothing left to be/Do you have something for me?/I don’t know what to think/I get pissed at everything”).
The lyrics on Farm are often indecipherable, but Mascis has a lovable quality to his voice that overrides the gnarling groans. The standout tracks are ‘Over It’, which has a one-more-for-the-road feel, and ‘Said The People’, an eight-minute bluesy lament with extended guitar solos and cries for somebody to “Save me”.
While Farm doesn’t have the same brattish air that made You’re Living All Over Me and Bug such grunge-era greats , the album still echoes Dinosaur Jr.’s influential golden era with its distortion-dripped guitar. Over a 20 year span, Dinosaur Jr. have overcome personal disputes and managed to stay true-to-form by simply recapturing the essence of what they once were, without sounding like mutton rocking out as lamb.
Key Track: ‘I Don’t Wanna Go There’