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Rating:
J. Mascis for a moment could have become what Kurt Cobain eventually became: the king of troubled kids.
It's a pity that he was so lazy and reticent that he didn’t even remotely consider following the advice of his record label, which promised him mainstream success if only he would get off his behind and give up watching TV for a while.
The truth perhaps is that despite having a first-class songbook with pop appeal, J might not have had the right persona to truly connect with the disoriented generation of the '90s: too snobbish, no biographical story to build a character for teenage consumption. A son of wealth, passionate about golf and skiing: how could an alternative fan ever fully identify with this quirky type? At the height of the grunge explosion, he released "Where You Been," in the blessed year of 1993, considered unanimously as the album of maturity and which I personally consider the finest of the major label era. The album would also become their best seller, bringing the group into the UK top ten and, indeed, just a step away from the fabled success of big numbers. Compared to the "sst" labeled albums, the formula here is slightly different and the first signs were already evident with "Greenmind". J found his balance between guitar outbursts and ballads in the most classic style of American music and, despite denying the obvious, Neil Young is the main reference, not only for the lazy voice.
It kicks off brilliantly with "Out There," a masterpiece within a masterpiece and "Start Choppin," the first single from the album. Great guitar walls that are the trademark of the band and a timid attempt to vary the sounds where in the poignant and beautiful "Not The Same" and "Goin' Home" strings, organs, and keyboards make their appearance to enhance the whole. A mandatory mention for "Get Me," a ballad for broken hearts promptly consoled by Our Hero’s slurred and moving voice. Just these days, the reissue of "Where You Been" is being released with bonus tracks and a remaster.
Highly recommended purchase and if you don’t trust your unlucky debaser reviewer, trust the journalists of "Spin," who at the release of the album dedicated the legendary cover with the words: J Mascis is God
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Other reviews
By Antonio G. Toriello
Mascis is the absolute master of the band in terms of composition and instruments played.
Where You Been is certainly Dinosaur Jr.'s best work without taking anything away from the other four masterpieces that preceded it.
By hypnosphere boy
The intuition behind the music of the 'dinosaurs' is simple and brilliant: to create a meld of guitar noise feedback and melodies that barely manage to surface.
In the six-plus minutes of 'Not The Same' the Dinosaurs illuminate us with something unusual and never heard before: a completely acoustic ballad, a bit out of tune, as if constantly on the verge of breaking with emotion.
