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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Masterpiece, September 3, 1999
Dinosaur Jr fans tend to be split into two camps: those who favor the early, Lou-Barlow-era underground sound of Bug and You're Living All Over Me, and those who prefer the fuller, more finished sounds of the J Mascis-centric Green Mind and later albums. To me, it's all so good that I can never decide which I like better. But although I've listened to every album at least a thousand times, Where You Been has always been the one that staggers me. With an unconscious, sleight-of-hand genius for song structure and melody, Mascis created the strongest songs of his career. Although less driven by impulsive inspiration than some earlier stuff (like The Wagon), these songs are more finished, and Mascis has brought in an uncanny knack for instrumentation to add layers of mood to otherwise simple songs. Out There, for instance, is just a basic five-chord folk progression, but those static guitars and stop-rhythms turn it into an epic. Start Choppin, On the Way and Hide are so original that there is simply no analog to them in contemporary music. I have to close with a tribute to Not the Same, the mysteriously oft-maligned ballad; I don't think I've ever heard a sadder or more beautiful song. The whole album leaves me in awe.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where you been? is a moot question, March 22, 1999
By A Customer
This work is undoubtedly a most underated album. It is as close to a studio masterpiece that I think Dinosaur Jr. was capable of, and all studio polish is used as it should be used...to add to the impact of a song, and not to define a song. The Album starts off on a high tempo note with 'Out There'- a blueprint of layered guitars and longing lyrics to follow. 'What else is new' is a confession of desperation leading into the beautiful acoustic wind-up of the song, and the majestic masterpiece 'Get Me' is a true classic for all who were in in our late teens during the early 1990's. An album that has withstood the test of time, at least in my CD collection.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Found, but never lost, May 13, 2004
To start off with, I must say that I am not one to blurt out grandiose declarative statements about the greatness of something. I will have to make an exception in the case of D.J.'s Where You Been. I first discovered Dinosaur Jr. back when this album first came out. I heard them on the radio and was mightily impressed. I really hadn't heard anybody quite like them before. At this time, I was very much interested in the grunge movement, particularly Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. I also found I had a strong interest in the Pixies, and a mild interest in Sonic Youth, both of whom hailed from the same Mass. area as DJ. While I still enjoy all of these groups for myriad of reasons, the one group I never tired of was Dinosaur Jr. and in particular this album. I actually started out loving "I ain't saying", but when I bought the cd I lost interest in it. I really dug "Start Choppin'" for its simple bubbly rhythm. For me, "Get Me" is a real gem with its astounding guitar solos and mutterings of J. Most of the other tracks are very good. Easy to listen all through. The thing about DJ that I have always found comforting is that vocally it invokes a sort of "throw my hands in the air" apathy that has carried me through some pretty tough times over the years. Besides, I could actually sing along and very often it would be of a quality near par to J's(lol).
The music is enough to make even the most dedicated lyricists overlook the scratchy, oft-out of key vocals and generally incomprehensible words. I would argue that the lyrics and vocals are part and parsal to the overall DJ experience, though. I have purchased this album twice, and am getting ready to buy another copy of it. After hearing this album, I started checking out DJ's other albums. They were hard to find where I lived at the time, but it became a bit of an obsession to find them. I think GreenMind is a very solid album, maybe even my second favorite and I very much enjoy the EP-Whatever's Cool With Me. The live version of the GreenMind classic "Thumb" is superb and well-worth the cost of the cd. I am not a huge fan of DJ's early stuff, though I own all of it and listen to it on occasion. Fossils is a fun album though. The album following Where You Been, Without a Sound, was initially disappointing to me. I was rather possessive of "my" band and when they started to gain a little attention, I resented the "johnny come lately's" even though I suppose I was one too, as I look back. I didn't give the cd a chance, but as I have listened to it since, I have gained a healthy respect for it. Their last original cd, which I can't remember the name of is also a solid effort. All in all, I must say that Where You Been was one of the first cd's that I could listen to not stop all the way through. I would recommend this to anyone who is nostalgic for the bygone 90's or just those interested in some obscure guitar-driven rock that is fresh and still holds up 10+ years after it was released. When you look at the poor state of rock these days, DJ really shines, especially to those of you who haven't heard much of their music.
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by Dinosaur Jr. 
