Roaring Form. Dinosaur Jr., I Bet On Sky.

Nothing makes your inner adolescent slam shut the proverbial bedroom door and jack up the hi-fi quite like a new LP from Amherst alt.rock constants Dinosaur Jr. and following on from J Mascis' lukewarm début paddle in the land of the lonesome, I Bet On Sky has been some time coming. Not exactly a long time per se – three and a bit years was none too long ago the customary time it took to piece together a record, Abel Tesfaye et al. – but this one's definitely got that internal tyke scrabbling at the cellophane. Worth the wait, then?

Absolutely. And absolutely categorically! From the effervescent major/minor jaunt of opener Don't Pretend You Didn't Know right through to Mascis' final liquorice-bittersweet guitar lick on See It On Your Side, I Bet On Sky is only to be revered, and with it worshipped as one may Ace of Spades, or Black Sabbath, or Chinatown, or Daydream Nation. Scroll over to 'I' on this alphabetical excursion through twenty-six perennially celebrated albums and if there's any justice in our modern-day world, you'll happen upon this, the trio's consummate opus.

Always ones to propagate the old (à la early-mid '90s Seattle sound) with newly assumed techniques and innovative, if oft chuggy chord progressions Dino Jr. balance out a perfect equilibrium of these two elements across this most engrossing of tracklistings: Stick A Toe In practically erupts with a raw emotivity come its chorus; a chorus capable of scraping a healthy clutch of cloud from our sky, yet it's buoyed by a visceral undercurrent of rhythms what toss and turn violently. Watch The Corners, meanwhile, is thundered along by riffage worthy of the ever seminal Pinkerton and boasts not one, but two titanic solos. That neither then sounds in any way superfluous is perhaps its most monumental feat. Soon falls Pierce The Morning Rain and, awash with overdrive, this one seems inspired by some vexatious gum stuck to Mascis' sole as it balloons in listenability only to swiftly explode in a scratchy post-chorus breakdown. Bassist Lou Barlow proffers his finest Jamie Stewart impression on the impeccably constructed, Stipe-like and desperation-strewn Recognition, whilst Almost Fare carries over a tad of the acoustic wares touted by Mascis during bygone Several Shades of Why times, thus joining a couple dots with the neat tidiness of they that peer down from the top of the class. And right now, that's where they're sat.

Prolonging extinction one LP at a time, best not bet on Dinosaur Jr. roaring their last any time soon on this sort of evidence.