Highlights: Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know, Watch The Corners,
Almost Fare, What Was That
While this is certainly
the prettiest grunge you are ever going to get all year, I can only see tried
and true Dinosaur Jr. fans getting too excited about this one. I Bet On Sky is a very risk-free, very
safe collection of melodic, tastefully noisy indie-rock that makes for a delightful
little late-period album. A modest success, but it’s not like they were going
for more.
The tunes are pretty (mostly
courtesy of J. Mascis, though there are 2 worthy contributions from Lou Barlow)
and the guitar tones are pretty (even when they go for something menacing, like
they do on Barlow’s “Rode”), so there’s little you could possibly dislike about
I Bet On Sky. Mascis’ weary vocals sound
like a gruffer Jeff Tweedy (I would argue, though, that these melodies will
beat anything on Wilco’s latest – not that it’s a legitimate comparison, of
course) and the actual songs are like Teenage Fanclub for people suffering from
manic depression. I think I could listen to the charming guitar groove that
drives “Almost Fare” for hours on end.
All things considered,
this stands well against Bug and You’re Living All Over Me, and further
listens are rewarding. You don’t see new fans embracing them as the new heroes,
but who would really blame them for sticking to their guns and doing what they
know they can do so well?..
7/10
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