So I sat listening to this third and final Dinosaur Jr album while in a hospital waiting room today. Why I was there is not particularly important (but fear not dear readers, I was not the ailing one, nor is the patient in question in any bad way).
It was amusing, however, was that said album opens with a very appropriately titled track – Feel The Pain. Said tune is a classic J. Mascis effort, with a killer (but simple) riff and languid vocal. In the spirit of the doctor-filled setting of this review, it also is one of the rare alt-rock classics to feature a golf-themed video clip (see below).
I’d forgotten how well this album opens, with the lovelorn I Don’t Think So second in the order. This masterful portrayal of masculine pain demonstrates how Mascis shares that finely-balanced of vulnerable yet axe-wielding and dirty-haired angle that Kurt Cobain portrayed so well.
To follow this with a track like Yeah Right which is a very frank description about an ambivalent relationship is brilliant sequencing.
The rest of the album is not as engaging, but still a nice contrast with the earlier two for the relatively sedate and measured sound.
Here’s that golf-cart flick:
File under: A sneaky treat
A strangley fond memoryof this album from 15 years ago is lying ill in bed with Feel the Pain on repeat… probably gives the song a higher status in my own head than it deserves, but music is often about the time and splace…
A more recently fond memory was singing the tune on Band Hero with my neice hitting the plastic guitar hard in support. Not a great singalong song, but good to see that these games are not all based on Abba and Beyonce songs.