''Green Mind'' is the fourth studio album by

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band Dinosaur Jr., released in 1991. It was the band's first release after bassist

Lou Barlow Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock ...

's departure, as well as the first released by a

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. The record is close to being a

J Mascis Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. (born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist a ...

solo album: he played most of the instruments, with founding drummer Murph only featuring on three tracks (1, 7 and 9). The cover photograph depicting a child smoking a cigarette, ''Priscilla, Jones Beach, 1969'', is by Joseph Szabo and taken from his book of photographs ''Almost Grown''. "Turnip Farm" is also featured in the film ''

Reality Bites ''Reality Bites'' is a 1994 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Helen Childress and directed by Ben Stiller in his feature directorial debut. It stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Stiller, with supporting roles by Janeane Garofa ...

''.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Tom Sinclair said that compared to Dinosaur Jr.'s previous album '' Bug'' (1988), ''Green Mind'' "sounds every bit as energetic and full-blooded" despite much of the record being performed solely by Mascis, whose guitar playing, Sinclair remarked, "will bowl over even confirmed louder-is-better zealots." ''

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'' critic

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

found that the album revealed Mascis to be "a craftsmanlike songwriter and arranger" with "one of rock's most unusual sensibilities—the bewildered couch potato". Ralph Traitor of '' Sounds'' declared that "Dinosaur Jr have given us two great sides of born innocent modern

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

", while Graeme Kay commented in '' Q'' that ''Green Mind'' should "consolidate their reputation as purveyors of quality hardcore." Tom Moon, in ''

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'', noted that, "while the solos include some brilliantly snarling episodes, it is the remarkably restrained rhythm parts that fully reveal Mascis' unorthodox approach."

Graham Linehan Graham George Linehan (; born May 1968) is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms ''Father Ted'' (1995–1998), '' Black Books'' (2000–2004), and ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), and has wri ...

was more reserved in his praise, calling ''Green Mind'' "a relief, not a bolt from the sky" in his review for '' Select'' and finding that Dinosaur Jr. had yet to make a "masterpiece". In ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'',

Stuart Maconie Stuart John Maconie (born 13 August 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark Radc ...

deemed the album "under-done" at times but concluded that the band "remain a fascinating oddment in rock's haberdashery", playing "

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock Music genre, genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, particularly in Seattle and Music of Olympia, Washington, O ...

with feeling and added cleverness."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

considered Mascis more effective as an instrumentalist than as a vocalist. Writing in retrospect for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Fred Thomas opined that ''Green Mind'' "ushered in the version of Dinosaur Jr. that would live out the rest of the '90s, with Mascis' lyrical language of slang and vaguities hemming him into a lonely stoner figure and the warm-but-distant tone of the songwriting exposing an enormous debt to

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

for the first time in the band's catalog." ''

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''s Jess Harvell observed that while "the music is just a step on from where Dino had arrived at on ''Bug''... throughout the album, Mascis' solos become more controlled bursts of

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

, less spirals off the dirt track into the ditch of fuzz and mud." Stephen Deusner, reviewing for '' Uncut'', noted that the "casual guitar

jangle Jangle or jingle-jangle is a sound typically characterized by undistorted, treble-heavy electric guitars (particularly 12-strings) played in a droning chordal style (by strumming or arpeggiating). The sound is mainly associated with pop m ...

" of ''Green Mind'' emphasized the pop elements of Mascis's songwriting, while '' Drowned in Sound''s Chris Power remarked on the "expansiveness" of ''Green Mind'' and its 1993 follow-up '' Where You Been''.

Track listing

All songs written by J Mascis, except where noted.

Personnel

;Dinosaur Jr. *

- vocals, guitar, bass, drums, producer * Murph - drums (tracks 1, 7, 9) with: *Joe Harvard - guitar, tape (track 8) *Jay Spiegel - large drum, tambourine (track 5), tom-tom (track 1) * Don Fleming - guitar, backing vocals (track 1), acoustic bass (track 5) *

Sean Slade Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957) is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie. Career Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He graduated from Ya ...

- engineer, mellotron (tracks 7, 9) *Tom Walters - assistant engineer *

Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...

- backing vocals (track 11)

Charts

Album -

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(United States) Singles - Billboard (United States)

References

{{Authority control 1991 albums Dinosaur Jr. albums Sire Records albums Blanco y Negro Records albums