Without a Sound

Dinosaur Jr. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 30, 1994)
• Original Release Date: August 30, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reprise / Wea
• ASIN: B000002MTC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,532 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Feel the Pain

2. I Don't Think So

3. Yeah Right

4. Outta Hand

5. Grab It

6. Even You

7. Mind Glow

8. Get Out of This

9. On the Brink

10. Seemed Like the Thing to Do

11. Over Your Shoulder

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: DINOSAUR JR.
Title: WITHOUT A SOUND
Street Release Date: 08/30/1994
Domestic
Genre: PUNK

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars unfairly lambasted, pretty record, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Without a Sound (Audio CD)

Without a Sound is an album full of tender melodies, occasional fuzz, and atypical guitar restraint. At its release in 1994, critics took J Mascis to town, labeling him a self-parody and has-been. The accusations didn't make sense, for the most part. They pointed to a song like "Feel the Pain," with its lyric "I feel the pain of everyone, then I feel nothing" as megalomaniacal, or at least misguided. Why? Mascis never went on record as saying the song was autobiographical. If anything, coming on the heels of Kurt Cobain's suicide, it seemed perhaps about him. Perhaps not, but I pretty much just thought the song was catchy. Nothing wrong with that. Other standouts on the album include the circular, acoustic "Outta Hand," the squealing "Grab It," and the album's closer "Over Your Shoulder," an obvious and touching tribute to Mascis' dad, who had recently died. Critics complained the album had a phoned-in quality; is it even possible to half-assedly write a song to your dead father? Mascis' singing has improved greatly; it had never bothered this intrepid reviewer, anyway, but Mascis has smartly learned to put a female harmony behind his indisputably pretty, gentle melodies to great affect. Mascis also has a great sense of percussive flourish; he knows how to hit the drum harder after a line to put an exclamation point after an emotion. The album's only frustrating quality was that Mascis seems reluctant to let go of his signature rock guitar sound. The album appeared lost in a no-man's land between a power-pop gem like Matthew Sweet's "100% Fun" and Wilco's mostly acoustic, very organic, and slightly rural pop keeper "A.M." Strangely enough, the album almost seemed to have an Uncle Tupelo nod. "Feel the Pain" lifts the jerky riff from Tupelo's "Factory Belt" (on "No Depression"), and the album title is also taken from that song's line "don't want to go to the grave without a sound," which is definitely a line J Mascis can identify with. Mascis would do well to go all out attacking one style in the future instead of blending two like straight pop and country shuffle. One almost wishes Mascis would spring for an orchestra and write and record a pop classic. He already has mastered pop melodies and percussive dynamics. A big produced pop record would prove this. Perhaps now (1998) that he's given up Dinosaur he'll get more musically adventurous.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still can't figure out why this doesn't get better reviews, January 26, 2007

By 

Jared Jongeling, the Reviewer's Choice (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Without a Sound (Audio CD)

I love this album. There's hardly a bad song on here. I still can't figure out why people think this album is not very good. In all honesty. you really can't go wrong with any Dino Jr. album - so even if it DID suck (which it doesn't, I assure you), it would still be Dinosaur Jr., and better than most music out there today. "Feel the Pain" was the song that made me discover Dinosaur Jr., so I guess I owe all the credit to this album right here.

Pick it up, you won't be sorry.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars mascis songbook in the dollar bin, November 6, 2005

By 

Stargrazer "the lost mixtape of my life" (deep in the heart of Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Without a Sound (Audio CD)

Too bad everyone is too cool to enjoy this album on its own merits. Basically a solo album, J Mascis plays nearly all the instruments on a sturdy and enjoyable batch of original tunes. The songs may have more of an amber glow to them than the SST albums (recently remastered and brought back into print by Merge), which tended to be more spat out and propulsive. But the songs, performances, and production here are consistently good. The amount of derision heaped on this album should have been saved for some other, truly deserving awful record.

Oh well, the hipsters' loss is your gain. I foresee the songs from this album being revisited and covered by other artists in the near future. They lend themselves well to a wide variety of styles.

Pick this one up from the dollar bin and enjoy!