Dinosaur Jr.
Green Mind

People, it's summer. We need fresh and jovial entertainment, something that, when it ends, leaves you wanting to live life.
So, open the windows, throw out your slow and obsessive records (that's winter stuff and you have plenty of time to be sad), undress and dress in typically summer clothes: Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts and Converse, big sunglasses and a cap.
Good, now that you look like fools, you're ready to be beaten by a suburban bully and for this little disc.

Green Mind, class of 1991, is the first album of the new era of Dinosaur Jr where J Mascis manages to bring his despotic temptations to life. Lou Barlow is ousted (he will form Sebadoh) and Murph is reduced to a mere supporting role useful for live performances and a few studio tracks. In short, J does everything alone (records, plays, produces) institutionalizing the style previously followed over the 36 minutes of Bug and definitively moving away from the sonic assaults of Dinosaur and You're Living All Over Me.

Excessively underrated, this album contains songs that could easily be considered among the most beautiful of the 90s and the entire discography of Dinosaur Jr. For example: "The Wagon", a 4 minute and 55-second single, also featured live on 1991: The Year Punk Broke, opens directly (everything is there in the first second) and J's voice, indolent, shy, non-communicative, dominates, planting itself for millennia in the head of anyone who listens. "Blowing It": an arpeggio that merges distorted and acoustic guitar, tribal rhythm, a chorus as melodic as few... A Pop jewel. My favorite is "Water". Why? I don't know. I like the initial riff that if distorted would bring everything down, I like the dreamy tone of the voice, I like the chorus where the vibrato arm is very retro. "Thumb" is a perfect ending for any album with its subdued, calm, pastoral nature, and yet no. The circle closes with "Green Mind" which seems like a summary of everything heard before... the chorus is a blast. Anyway, a thousand words could be used to describe the spirit that permeates Green Mind (the album, not the song) but surely it’s more explanatory to look at the cover that could not be more fitting.

This album for me is one of those that you know so well, because you've worn it out over years and years of listening, that you prefer not to listen to it as you think you can't add anything new to what you already know and the emotions felt in the past. I hate the sea and especially hate going to the sea, but once I put this little disc in the stereo, going there, through the heat, the smog, the traffic, and staying there, was pleasant. Sometimes it takes little. The problem is I don't understand: am I starting to like the sea or is it this album that's captivating me so much? Who knows. In fear of getting a tan, the experiment will not be repeated.