You’re Living All Over Me…All Over Again

A couple weeks ago, Merge Records reissued Dinosaur Jr.’s first three albums, all remastered – Dinosaur, You’re Living All Over Me, and Bug. When I had my CDs stolen a while ago, YLAOM and Bug were included in the thieves’ loot. The reissue date had become much more anticipatory from then on.

YLAOM and Bug were theme albums of my teenage life. Each a score to my emotions when they were filled with angst and/or depression. Though the albums originally were released many years before my teens, 1987 and 1988, respectively, I never viewed them as relics. After recently listening to them again, they still hold up. How can you get better than a song about a rabbit, figurative of a girl, and call it Little Fury Things?

The production value on the original recordings were never that good, but it was a personality trait of the albums. They wouldn’t be the same if they were re-recorded. However, there is marked improvement in the sound quality of the remasters. The lows are more noticeable and it’s easier to hear the different guitar tracks. Each disc also comes with some goodies, like videos and live tracks.

Long live the dinosaur.