You're Living All Over Me
Oh those crunching riffs! Oh those hooks! Truly an album whose extended guitar solos, intros, and hooks offer hermetically sealed bliss,You're Living All Over Meis Dinosaur Jr.'s watershed. It marks the time when a threatened lawsuit from California hippies forced the "Jr." addition to their name; it also represents a turning point musically. All the parts unite as one: Mascis's tuneless vocalizing; an incredibly loud,Neil Young-inspired guitar style; hard-rock drumming; andLou Barlow's sympathetic (for the time being) bass work. The record is an assembly line of burning lick after lick, except for "Poledo," Barlow's standout last track (the genesis ofSebadoh-consciousness?). Dinosaur Jr. lived all overSonic Youth's noise aethsetic (their shows were the loudest thing going, bar none), but they grafted melody and a burnout personality on top, the coolest aspects of rock, circa 1987.--Gene Booth