Without A Sound

DINOSAUR JR: “Without A Sound” (Blanco Y Negro)

THE OPENING track on this album, ‘Feel The Pain’ has me totally hooked. Maybe it’s because the first time I saw it was with its so-ridiculous-it’s-a-work-of-art video. OK, maybe I’m twisted but I just love that video. I mean, two fellas playing a round of golf through New York, bashing business execs over the head as they go; it’s great. And maybe it wouldn’t matter what video this song has. Maybe I‘d love it just as much if they showed the live, un-edited coverage of a snail playing patience. Who knows? Who cares?

‘Feel The Pain’ is a classic Dinosaur Jr. track. It lopes along on a nice little pop melody, then – as if it’s arse has gone on fire – explodes into frenzied riffermania before, it would seem, realising that it was the acid and not its arse which had gone on fire, dutifully falls back into that beautiful lope. Oh, it’s a classic. I swear, it would be worth buying the album just for this one track.

J. Mascis has an image of being the ultimate, lazy slacker; somebody who finds it hard to make the effort to wipe his arse after a shite. But either he is one of those unique accidental geniuses, or else he cares. Because this album cares. It is rock ’n’ roll right down to its smelly socks, sweaty t-shirt and hang-dog jeans. You couldn’t be casual to most of these tracks because they are simply so inherently joyous and brimming with guitar-driven energy and – yes – genuine sincerity and love – that they grab you, twist you and roll you all about. Fuck’s sake, this is what it’s all about.

Let me throw in that dirty word ‘mature’. Yes, there is a growing-older maturity and depth about this stuff, a genuine delving and searching for and into love and relationships. It is sometimes marshalled by a veneer of cool and distance, but ultimately the honesty comes true. Like on ‘I Don’t Think So’: “I’d like to think she cried for me/But I don’t know . . . Could it be she cried for me?/I don’t think so’.

There’s a certain level on my volume dial that for the neighbours’ sake, I shouldn’t go beyond. And generally, I’m a courteous person, but sometimes, sometimes the music simply demands to be turned on up. Without A Sound most definitely contains such music. Will I love it next week as much as I do now? Who cares!

• Gerry McGovern