Few bands have shaped alternative rock quite like Dinosaur Jr. Four decades after first redefining the possibilities of guitar music, the Massachusetts trio have announced their new album, There Near, due out August 28 via Jagjaguwar, alongside its blistering lead single, Several Got Away.
There Near marks the sixth studio album recorded by the reunited classic lineup of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph since reforming in 2005. Dinosaur Jr. continue to prove there is still creative fire in the tank, delivering another collection of towering guitar anthems that balances deafening noise with aching melody.
Recorded in short, focused bursts over the course of a year at Amherst’s Bisquiteen Studio, the album finds the trio largely returning to a stripped-back recording approach. Mascis’ instantly recognisable guitar sound is given fresh bite through a vintage 1970s Mesa Boogie MK I amplifier, helping recapture some of the ragged, overdriven character that defined the band’s earliest recordings while retaining the melodic confidence of their later work.
Leading the campaign is Several Got Away, a typically muscular slice of Dinosaur Jr. that pairs Mascis’ unmistakable drawl with waves of distortion and soaring lead guitar. Director Guy Kozak’s accompanying video embraces the band’s offbeat humour, blending surreal imagery with low-budget DIY aesthetics that feel perfectly at home alongside the group’s long-standing visual identity.
Since emerging from Amherst in the mid-1980s, Dinosaur Jr. have become one of alternative rock’s most influential bands. Their combination of colossal guitar tone, melodic songwriting and emotional vulnerability helped lay the foundations for the explosion of American alternative rock in the 1990s, inspiring artists including Nirvana, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney, Slowdive and Kurt Vile.
The band will spend the second half of the year touring extensively across North America before turning their attention to Australia, where local dates are expected to be announced. If There Near is any indication, Dinosaur Jr. remain as loud, melodic and uncompromising as ever.
