Bug

I was expecting a very good late eighties noise rock record with this one, especially considering the previous album from them it was following up, but I was still genuinely surprised with how much I absolutely loved the first five tracks here. You’re Living All Over Me is the only album from them I was familiar with beforehand, and admittedly it’s one I don’t return to nearly often enough, but I imagine that’ll change now because these guys clearly had something special going on that I wasn’t fully seeing.

If you know anything about this kind of music, you know that wild, crushing walls of guitar noise are what you get with most of the tracks here, but try to cut through that and really pay attention and you’ll find some absolutely fantastic melodic songwriting going on as well. Freak Scene is of course a highlight, but No Bones is nearly as good for my money, and like I said already the energy remains for the next three tracks as well. After that, it is still very solid though, with tracks six to eight being very good as well. It’s just that the less intense Pond Song does signal a drop off from the amazing energy of the record’s first half that never fully comes back, and Dinosaur Jr does tend to front load their absolute best stuff already. Ending things off with the completely insane track Don’t was certainly a choice as well–I actually really respect the swing and it’d be hard to argue it’s not one of the more memorable entries in the “band members airing how much they hate each other on record” subgenre, but I can also see why it’s a lowlight for most people.

At the end of the day though, there’s enough absolutely killer material here to make it an easy recommendation if you’re into noise rock or want to explore more of the music that inspired grunge and the alt rock explosion of the early nineties. If you’ve heard You’re Living All Over Me and enjoyed it at all, don’t wait too long to check out anything else by them like I did.