Search - Dinosaur Jr :: Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best of Dinosaur Jr

Problematic retrospective

Bill Allison | 06/16/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a decent place to start if you have never owned a Dino Jr CD in your life. One listen to powerful songs like Little Fury Things, Freak Scene, and the sublime Get Me will clue you in to the life-changing potential of this little rock band from Western Mass, who laid the foundation of the early 90s shoegazer sound of bands like My Bloody Valentine.However, I am really disappointed at the overall track selection of this compilation. To wit:1) No Dinosaur Jr retrospective is complete without their awesome cover of Peter Frampton's Show Me the Way, or a couple of the other signature songs from You're Living All Over Me: The Lung, especially, and Tarpit.2) Songs from the last 2 Dinosaur albums are almost completely disposable (besides for historical purposes), with the exception of Feel the Pain, which was only remarkable in the sense that it earned them a lot of radio airplay.3) Take a Run at the Sun is a nice bonus, but I would have much preferred samples from J's work on the Gas Food Lodging soundtrack.4) The inclusion of a song by J Mascis & the Fog is inappropriate, since this is a retrospective of Dinosaur Jr, and the Fog formed after Dinosaur Jr officially broke up in 1997.Again, this is a decent start for total newbies, but an arguably better one would be the full-length albums Where You Been or You're Living All Over Me. That latter CD desperately needs to be put back into print!"

Got a knack for being right!

Sacco | here there and everywhere | 09/26/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"From there inception as a post hardcore sonic terrors until the end as grunge survivors, 'Ear Bleeding Country' Dinosaur Jr's best of covers a great deal of territory. Full of great tracks, some classic some merely good, the one thing you should take away from listening to this collection is that J Mascis, boy could he play guitar. A generation of who were brought up on grunge owe that guitar sound to J, one of the few originals of the last 25 years.



What this fails to do however is give a good overview of the band. The early tense savagery of the more punk albums especially isn't really on show on this collection, and is rather under represented. However its still great fun, often thunderous, and almost reveling in a slacker ethic. Though I'm sure every fan would have come up with a different best of 19 songs, this is still as decent a starting place you'll find for the band, after which if you're interested you should get 'You're Living All Over Me' then 'Bug' then 'Greenmind' and 'Whatevers Cool With Me', followed by the rest at random. Of interest long time fans still is the pretty flower of a 'Take A Run At The Sun' which J did for a movie soundtrack, and is probably the best example of his softer sider you'll ever find.



The other high lights, the first seven songs, 'Whatevers Cool With Me', 'Start Choppin', 'Feel The Pain' and 'I'm Insane'. Really just enjoy and then hopefully you'll discover the rest of what the band has to offer."

........

Bill Allison | Southwest Missouri, United States | 11/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I was in Junior High, I thought Dinosaur Jr. was it. While everyone else was absorbed in Pearl Jam and the Kurt Cobain/shotgun incident, I was rocking out to J. Mascis and co. I don't know what happened to me over the last seven or eight years, but I just sorta forget about them. I was in the store the other day and saw this sitting on the shelf and decided to pick it up after looking at the track listing. Listening to this "best of" compilation brought back as many memories as flipping through an old year-book. I just can't believe I ever lost track of this great band. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate them a lot more. It almost makes me feel nostalgiac. I generally don't care for "best of" or "greatest hits" albums that much but this is really one worth owning. I mean, with 19 tracks, it's more of an anthology. If, for some reason, or another, you missed out on this highly underrated band (or guitarist/singer/songwriter, I should say) this is where to start. Highly reccommended for anyone who claims to like "alternative" music or just good music in general."