CULT RECORD: DINOSAUR JR.:" YOU'RE LIVING ALL OVER ME" (1987)

Dinosaur first appeared in 1985 with "Repulsion," a shivery ballad that captured the sound of a teen hermit alone in his room, picking at his guitar like a scub. J Mascis sang in his strangled moan about hiding away from the world, proclaiming " Boredom won't starve as long as I feed it!" You could tell from Lou Barlow's bass and Murph's drums that the musicians had emerged from hardcore--Barlow and Mascis used to play in a hardcore band called Deep Wound. You're Living All Over Me is Dinosaur's signature work, conjuring up melodic idylls that give way to frazzled feedback eruptions. Mascis spends the album mumbling about feeling he doesn't want and desires he can't trust, letting his guitar speak of unspeakably sad longings. "Little Fury Things" and "Raisans" are the prettiest songs, but "In a Jar" is the heartbreaker: " I'll be grazing by your window, please come pat me on the head/ I just wanna find out what you're nice to me for." You're Living All Over Me maps the emotional extremes of punk with an openness that none of its many imitators has matched.

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