''Beyond'' is the eighth studio album by the
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band
Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow ...
. It was their first LP in a decade after 1997's ''
Hand It Over
''Hand It Over'' is the seventh studio album by alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr., released on March 25, 1997, on Reprise Records. It peaked at #188 in the United States. According to a 2007 ''Magnet'' interview with band leader J Mascis, ''H ...
'', and the first album by the original lineup since 1988's ''
Bug''.
Promotion
The band planned a full world tour in 2007 and played "Almost Ready" on the ''
Late Show with David Letterman
The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...
'' to support their album. A music video was made for "Been There All the Time", featuring
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
front-man
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...
and his daughter, Coco. It was directed by
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
.
Release
The album was released through
Fat Possum Records
Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...
in the US and through the
Play It Again, Sam label in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It was also released in Ukraine through
Moon Records. Both Fat Possum and PIAS released limited edition versions of it containing an extra 7 inch with the 2:47 track "Yer Son". The respective labels would go on to reissue the album in 2014, 2015 and 2016, the former even releasing a downloadable 256kbit/s
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
version of it.
Reception
The album has a
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
score of 79 based on 31 reviews, indicating "
nerally favorable reviews". Zach Baron of
''Pitchfork'' gave the album a very positive review, comparing it favorably to other comebacks of the year. He writes: "Beneath ''Beyond''
's crystalline production is the sublime result: years and years of weariness and aging and conflict put back into the bottle.
..Less a theme park of the past and more of an actual trip there
..''Beyond'' is nostalgic for everything but the band's own glory days. If anything, it's an exercise in making their entire twenty-year output sound contemporary again."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
wrote that the "very existence of this new album is a surprise, but the real shock is that ''Beyond'' is a flat-out great record, a startling return to form for J Mascis as a guitarist and songwriter and Dinosaur Jr. as a band." He found the album to be less noisy and more stylistically diverse than the earlier efforts of the trio ("this sounds like the album that could have been released instead of ''
Green Mind
''Green Mind'' is the fourth studio album by alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr., released in 1991. It was the band's first release after bassist Lou Barlow's departure, as well as the first released by a major label. The record is close to being ...
'' if Lou had stuck around, or if Dinosaur made the kind of grand major-label debut many expected them to deliver in the days before ''
Nevermind
''Nevermind'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, ''Neve ...
''.") He also finds the album to be "very different" from their past efforts "in that for the first time, Mascis is assertive about his talent. He sounds engaged -- in music, in life
..-- and it gives the album a powerful sense of purpose that the classic Dinosaur albums were lacking by their very design." He concludes by writing that "''Beyond'' isn't merely a worthy album from a reunited band, it's simply a great record by any standard."
A mixed review came from
''Q'', who wrote that "The spark that made initial albums such as
''Bug'' so special is still missing."
ay 2007, p. 123
Accolades
In popular culture
"Almost Ready" was used on the ''
Major League Baseball 2K8
''Major League Baseball 2K8'', or, in shorter terms, ''MLB 2K8'', is an MLB licensed baseball simulation video game co-developed by Blue Castle Games and newly renamed 2K Los Angeles and published by 2K Sports for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 ...
'' and ''
Skate 3
''Skate 3'' is a skateboarding video game, the third installment in the ''Skate'' series and the sequel to 2009's '' Skate 2'', developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It was released worldwide in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 a ...
'' soundtracks, and "Pick Me Up" is downloadable content from the ''
Rock Band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
'' series. The songs "Almost Ready" and "Crumble" were used in
Alien Workshop
Alien Workshop (AWS) is an independent American skateboarding company that was founded in 1990 by Chris Carter, Mike Hill, and Neil Blender in Dayton, Ohio. Following periods under the ownership of the Burton snowboard company and original team ...
's skateboarding film ''Mind Field''.
Track listing
Personnel
;Dinosaur Jr.
*
J Mascis
Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. ( ; born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo arti ...
– lead vocals, guitars, production, writer (1-3, 5-9, 11)
*
Lou Barlow
Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock mus ...
– bass, vocals, writer (4, 10)
*
Murph – drums, percussion
;Technical
*Rick Myers – design, artwork
*John Agnello – sound engineer
*Justin Pizzoferrato – sound engineer
*
Greg Calbi
Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey.
Biography
Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...
– mastering
*John Agnello – mixing
*Burk Uzzle – cover photography
*Philipp Virus – photography
**Recorded and mixed at Bisquiteen, Amherst, MA.
**Mastered at Sterling Sound, NYC.
Charts
''Beyond'' debuted at #69 on the
''Billboard'' 200 and peaked at #19 on the
Top Rock Albums
The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...
chart.
In 2012 it was awarded a double silver certification from the
Independent Music Companies Association
The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...
,
which indicated sales of at least 40,000 copies throughout Europe.
References
External links
*
Beyond' at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
Short story review of ''Beyond''at The Wheel's Still in Spin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyond (Dinosaur Jr. Album)
2007 albums
Dinosaur Jr. albums
Fat Possum Records albums