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

the sun is shining with a new intensity today...

This just arrived in the mail and as I was playing it I realised that I hadn't heard Freak Scene for years. At that moment the sun came out and I was lurched back to my youth and sweaty nights at the Pink Toothbrush where that song was guaranteed to fill the dance floor.

Today is a good day.

4 stars not 5 as Pond Song should have been on here. Otherwise it is great. March 28, 2006

Out There... Jr.

Odlicna kolekcija pesama jednog od najzanimljivijih americkih bendova nezavisne scene. Ne znam kako i zasto, ali Dinosaur Jr. su uvek bili i ostali nezasluzeno u senci Sonic Youth i Nirvana.
Ovo je kompilacija koja ce vas vratiti u vreme kada je nezavisna scena i tekako bila uticajna, a pesme poput Little Fury Things, Just Like Heaven, Whatever's Cool With Me, Out There... potsetiti na neka bezbednija vremena. October 25, 2005

Got a knack for being right!

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. September 26, 2005

Not Bad, But Not What I Expected

Okay, this is a review from someone who's not familiar at all with DJ's catalogue. I picked this up because I had remembered borrowing the Where You Been album from a friend and absolutely loving it. So I came to this expecting more of the same but unfortunately came away a little disappointed. The earlier stuff isn't really to my taste and I actually found it a little boring. From track 11 (the start of the three Where You Been tracks) onwards, things started to pick up and it was a bit more interesting. Overall though, if you're not a fan, I would recommend buying Where You Been instead. That's what I should have done in the first place!

July 23, 2004

Okay compilation

This could've been a better Best of CD if it were a two disc complete with live tracks and more tracks from the albums. But we do get the hard to find tracks Take a Run at the Sun, Just like Heaven and Whatever's cool With me. But most of the tracks from the eariler albums like Dinosaur, You're living all over Me and Bug are gone. From Dinosaur we only get Repulsion which is a pretty good song, but why not include Bulbs of Passion? J Mascis himself said it's one of the songs that really made them what they were even before they became Dinosaur jr. On YLAOM the tracks Lose, the Lung and Show me the Way are skipped over. Lose is probably Lou Barlow's best contribution to the band, the Lung is just great and Show me the Way is amazing for a cover song. We do get the awesome In a Jar and Little Fury things though. From Bug the tracks They Always Come, Pond Song and Let it Ride are missed out on.

Actually come to think of it only two tracks from each album are featured on this compilation. And they're usually the more popular songs like Feel the Pain (Without a Sound) and I'm Insane (Hand it over). Not to say they're bad songs, it's that the Dino jr veterans would like to see the less accessible tracks from the OOP albums on here.

With that being said pick this up if you're a newcomer to Dinosaur Jr or J Mascis's work. But if you've grown to Dinosaur Jr like I have then skip it and seek out the other albums.

I would also like to say that sometime later this year You're Living all Over me, Dinosaur and Bug are getting reissues. Keep that in mind. June 27, 2004

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