Dinosaur Jr.’s latest effort, Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, was released on August 5, 2016. Upon first impression, in which I listened to the album through a small bluetooth speaker while unpacking my things into my new bedroom, I generally enjoyed the album. I did not listen incredibly carefully to the small details of the album, but I enjoyed the things I paid attention to for the most part. The second time I listened to the album, through Bose headphones while taking notes, I paid much more attention to the details and had a slightly different impression.
The album begins with “Goin Down,” which is essentially a prototypical Dinosaur Jr. song. It features fuzzed out guitars, huge drums, monster bass lines, and slacker vocals that no one but J Mascis can provide. The next song on the album is “Tiny,” the lone single released and a definite high point of the album for me. The whole song is insanely well written and I heard it enough times that it’s become one of my favorite songs as of late. In my opinion, the album kind of slows down and then comes to a screeching halt with the next few songs. “Love Is…” is definitely my least favorite song off the album. It completely took me out of the general vibe I was getting from the album and, to be honest, I just don’t like Lou’s vocals very much. It would be a much more enjoyable experience listening to the song if it weren’t preceded and succeeded by songs with loud guitar and J’s vocals. Fortunately the next track, “Good to Know,” brought me right back into things. It’s another one of those songs that just sounds exactly like what you expect when you think of Dinosaur Jr.’s songwriting. “I Walk for Miles” was another high point of the album for me. It had this stoner, fuzzed out vibe that I wasn’t really expecting but I really loved. One downside to this song is that it begins a string of really long songs on the tail end of the album. The next high point for me is “Mirror,” which has this really cool, Western-style vibe to it throughout the song and a neat pre-chorus guitar part. This is an incredibly well written song. Lastly we have “Left/Right,” which seemed to me like a weird choice to close out the album. It was another song that had Lou on vocals, but it was considerably better than “Love Is…”. It isn’t a really remarkable song though, which I generally expect with the last song on an album. Plus, it ends on a really weird note that I just don’t think was a fitting way for the entire album to end.
Ultimately I think this album’s Achilles Heel was a lack of cohesiveness. I was just taken out of the whole mood of the album a couple times throughout. The songwriting is definitely there, which I expect from Dinosaur Jr. and the production was fantastic. Murph’s drum tone is always huge and the same can go for Lou’s bass sound. The only problems I see with production are that J used some ill-fitting guitar effects at times. Overall I think this is a pretty good album, though; especially from a band that’s been doing this for 30+ years.
Songwriting: 8/10
Cohesiveness of the Album: 6/10
Production: 9/10
First Listen Score: 7/10
Second Listen Score: 8/10
TOTAL SCORE: 7.6/10