Ranking Dinosaur Jr Albums

DuploLicks

Ok, so I had never listened to Dinosaur Jr but Andy Martin's opening solo in the review of the Thorpy Fallout Cloud really got into my ears and checking out the comments there were a few attributes to Dinosoaur Jr so off i went to buy Green Mind & Farm which I've had on repeat since getting them.

Appealing then to the collective wisdom of tFB, what's your ranking of the albums?

This 2016 list puts Farm at #7 - if it's that bad in the catalogue then i've got a lot of good stuff to come!

WORST
11. Dinosaur (1985)
10. Without a Sound (1994)
9.  Hand It Over (1997)
8.  Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)
7.  Farm (2009)
6.  Bug (1988)
5.  I Bet On Sky (2012)
4.  Beyond (2007)
3.  Green Mind (1991)
2.  Where You Been (1993)
1.  You’re Living All Over Me (1987)
BEST

MagicPigDetective

Agreed with the top 3, probably would be those for most but the order might differ based on personal preference. Where You Been was my first introduction to them and is my best, then Green Mind. Others might prefer the earlier line up with Lou Barlow, and You’re living all over me

freakboy1610

I'm a big fan so it's hard to sort them fairly but I would judge the 3 eras of Dinosaur Jr, best to worst, as listed below. Dinosaur is very different to everything else but has some great tracks. The one that I never really listen to anymore is Hand it Over but, strangely it's J Mascis' favourite LP from the major label years.

Original lineup:-
You’re Living All Over Me
Bug
Dinosaur

Major label years:-
Where You Been
Green Mind
Without a Sound
Hand it Over

Reunion:-
Farm
Beyond
Sweep it into Space
Give a Glimpse
I Bet on Sky 

If I were you I'd get Where You Been next.

Sporky

I'd rate Without A Sound much higher.

Green Mind is my favourite, but even the remastered version is far too bass-light. 

Teyeplayer

I love Where You Been, it was my Dinosaur Jr gateway drug.

GoFish

Without A Sound is underrated imo. With Dinosaur Jr (and others, but them especially) I find 2 things apply:

1) It's quite distinctive. Line up changes aside, it seems to me that J is trying to reach a sound in his head. He was focused on that, famously to the exclusion of other's opinions, hence Barlow starting Sebadoh. So personal faves  and order of discovery matter much more to the listener imo.

2) So much of it has been a personal Mascis journey that his feelings in making any record are coloured into his opinion of the result. We all do that to some extent. but  with Dinosaur Jr being such a Mascis thing, it's more pronounced. Wasn't Hand it Over one that he had little to no band-stuff to distract him from writing and performing on the album? I may be wrong. Without a Sound was obviously miserable to make.

I find the splitting into 3 eras to be very useful. The "best" 3 are probably Green Mind, You're Living... and Where You Been - in some order. But it's all good, and there's something in each one. It's not the Beatles but it's not meant to be.

yocky

Where You Been top of the pile for me.

Don't sleep on the 2 J Mascis and the Fog albums, especially the first one. Pretty Dinoesque and better/more consistent than much of the later DJ stuff.

An even more gratuitous tangent, his stoner/psych band Witch's first album is fucking amazing and I never hear anyone talk about it. 

DuploLicks

Thanks everyone, That’s really useful. You’ve given me the next couple albums to check out. Appreciate the split into eras which will give me something to pickup on as I collect their records.

euan

Yeah go listen to Free so Free. It’s up there with the best of the Dino Jr. 

Farm and I Bet are my favourites from the reunion and most consistent era. 

ewal

I put Bug 2nd after Your Living... They were the two albums I listened to when I was a fan. I maybe didn't give Green Mind a chance, then didn't listen to anything others until Farm.

26.2

All the reunion ones

Vintage65

I didn't know they remastered this

distressed

Shared 1st place: YLAOM and Bug. That's when I got into them. Can't rank the others really.

Vintage65

Best song; Freak Scene?

distressed

Vintage65 said:

Best song; Freak Scene?

Their biggest hit in the 80s definitely.

Whitecat

Without A Sound (surprised to see that so low) & Where You Been *are* Dinosaur Jr for me. Those are the ones I go back to. Don't bother with much else anymore, I love those two albums.

ewal

Vintage65 said:

Best song; Freak Scene?

Bit of game changer at the time and the breakthrough track for a lot of people.

I'd maybe go for Raisans.

MagicPigDetective

For me it’s Out There… that riff combined with the solo conveying pain and longing… I was welling up when they played it on a recentish tour… 

I didn’t know at the time but Mike Johnson the bass player in the post Barlow years was seriously talented in his own right, writing and playing guitar on much of the music for Mark Lanegan’s early solo albums. 

GoFish

MagicPigDetective said:

For me it’s Out There… that riff combined with the solo conveying pain and longing… I was welling up when they played it on a recentish tour… 

I didn’t know at the time but Mike Johnson the bass player in the post Barlow years was seriously talented in his own right, writing and playing guitar on much of the music for Mark Lanegan’s early solo albums. 

Thanks for the info on Mike Johnson - The first two Mark Lanegan solo albums are very dear to me so it's nice to hear something about them.

While I'm here: Thank you @yocky for reminding me about J Mascis and the Fog and letting me know about Witch.

UnclePsychosis

Bug and YLAOM are the "obvious" choices.

That said, I really love Sweep It Into Space which is the most recent one. 

Being 100% honest, though, I find it hard to remember which Dino Jr album is which. I do love them as a band but the records aren't exactly diverse... 

UnclePsychosis

Vintage65 said:

Best song; Freak Scene?

The Wagon, for me.