Dinosaur Jr.

This decade has seen the reunions of plenty of great underground-rock bandsfrom The Pixies and My Bloody Valentine to Pavement and The Jesus Lizardbut none of these reunions have been less probable than that of Dinosaur Jr.’s original lineup of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and drummer Murph. On Dinosaur Jr.’s 2007 comeback album Beyond, they made up for lost time, quickly bridging the gap between their edgy ’80s albums and the cleaner, sprawling ’90s albums made without Barlow. This year’s Farm is even better, a beast of a record with a bigger sound, bigger hooks and bigger guitar solos. It ranks among the band’s finest, which is high praise indeed. All reunions should be as fruitful as this one.