Album Review: Dinosaur Jr - I Bet On Sky

Playing in a rock band and making it to your tenth studio album can't be an easy feat, and aside from coming full circle to record with all original band members (all of whom have their share of the fatter, greyer and balder signs of aging), to have it sounds as good as the albums released at the height of its popularity in the 1990s must be satisfying too. J, Murph and Lou return off the back of 2009's Farm, their third since reuniting in 2007, with a record packed full of the grinding guitars, introspective monotone lyrics and pounding drums all drowned in a reverbed sea of the 'live' sound that they invented.

I Bet On Sky is no obvious departure from the formula – that is to say it's not an experimental dubstep album – but what it does demonstrate is a band that has filtered through all the stuff that might not have worked in the past and channelled everything that does into a record that meshes poignancy with indifference throughout. That and the odd guitar shred sitting way, way out front. Lou Barlow (also of Sebadoh fame) has contributed a couple of tracks, like the garage punk Rude, but it's the Mascis moments like Don't Pretend You Didn't Know, with lyrics like “Cryin' all the time/The discharge is a sign”, (how touching is that?) and the stuttered pop of Watch The Corners, that make the listen such a gratifying one.

There is a real presence on this record, something that's lacking in today's releases, and while these guys may not save rock'n'roll, they show on this album that they will damn well avenge it.