I — probably like most interested parties — didn’t have high expectations for
Sure, I was excited about the band getting back together, and seeing them at Lollapalooza was fun, but few of these indie- and punk-rock reunions ever produce much in the way of exciting new music. Toss in the legendary bad blood between Mascis and Barlow and you had to figure Beyond was a one-and-done cash-in between the musicians’ other projects.
I’m glad I was wrong. Beyond turned out to be that rarity: a late-career album that fully captures why people loved a band in the first place, but that also displays a natural growth and maturity. The Weirdness it wasn’t.
But finding that spark again doesn’t necessarily guarantee a durable second act.
Mission of Burma’s second post-reunion disc, The Obliterati, despite my early high assessment, didn’t quite end up with the legs of the band’s first get-back-together album, OnOffOn. And I wonder if the same fate might befall Farm, Dinosaur Jr.’s good-not-great Beyond follow-up.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2009.