The further we got from the release of Dinosaur Pile-Up’s Celebrity Mansions, the more it began to feel like a fluke. It was their stopper on what had been, up to then, an entire career of second-stringer status, finally with some empirical evidence that greatness was within their reach. And then they just…didn’t do anything else. They were ripe to capitalise on it and finally live their rockstar dreams that that album had so snidely bitten into. But in the six intervening years, Dinosaur Pile-Up’s camp has produced nought but silence.
The explanation for that has been a very fraught one, more so than usual creative reshuffles or burnout that often lead to sabbicals like this. It’s tied to frontman Matt Bigland’s health issues, diagnosed with ulcerative colitis that saw multiple hospital admissions, weight loss, internal bleeding, and even the need for sections of his tongue to be removed for investigation. It’s harrowing stuff, distilled into the mantric sarcasm of Dinosaur Pile-Up’s new album title I’ve Felt Better. It’s an album about battling the worst of adversities and coming out changed, scarred but ultimately victorious, though we can’t not have a grunge band bathed in some degree of emotional detachment, can we?
Just take a glance at some of the track titles to see Dinosaur Pile-Up wearing the aloof, ‘ironic’ clothes of the Gen X touchstones they’ve based their brand on—‘Bout To Lose It; I’ve Felt Better; Sick Of Being Down. These all stem from a period of life-threatening illness exacerbated by the pandemic, BTW. That’s not to say that any one trauma response is less valid than another, but there isn’t exactly a feel of triumph to Dinosaur Pile-Up in this mould, as much as trying to pick up from the exact millisecond where they left off. The last song’s title, I Don’t Love Nothing And Nothing Loves Me, takes a similar semantic shape to Nirvana’s I Hate Myself And Want To Die if you squint at it, a song which Kurt Cobain outright described as a joke more than a cry for help. I’ve Felt Better doesn’t go that far, but the vibe isn’t a million miles away, either.
When Dinosaur Pile-Up are more earnest, they prove it’s not outside the realms of possibility for them. Quasimodo Lemonheart saturates itself with Bigland’s self-deprecation, but along with Punk Kiss, still stands as a sincere note to his wife Karen Dió. Later on, Sunflower is a fairly formulaic ‘finding light out of the darkness’ song, though it’s still a standout among the album’s marginally less robust final leg.
It’s worth pointing out, however, that there’s no enormous disparity between anything that Dinosaur Pile-Up do on I’ve Felt Better. They’ve been around long enough to know what they’re good at, and that tends to average out all over the album. Fat grunge riffs with minimal tampering remain dominant, going a little darker and more volatile on Big Dogs without a total overhaul. Additionally, with Bigland’s sharper, nasal voice that has its potency supercharged more often than not—the value of a curt, standalone “Yeah!” has seldom been higher than in his hands—there’s enough of a distinct, unifying edge across the board.
The closest to true novelty on I’ve Felt Better is My Way in its cement-cracking rap-rock, and even that’s practically identical to Back Foot, Dinosaur Pile-Up’s biggest song. Maybe it would’ve been worthwhile leaving that one off to avoid how borderline one-to-one the likenesses are, though not because it’s a bad song. It’s a vested contributor to the swollen cache of hooks that is I’ve Felt Better, executed with similar gusto that made Celebrity Mansions so great. As far as singalong potential goes, the full first half of the album is a pretty dead-on capture of ‘90s alt-rock throttle and punch, and with the likes of Love’s The Worst and Quasimodo Lemonheart in its corner, the second is no slouch, either. In these later portions of their career, what Dinosaur Pile-Up have sorely lacked in true-blue innovation, they’ve significantly made up for it in how well they push what they’ve got. Celebrity Mansions thrived on that alone, and I’ve Felt Better isn’t far off the same.
All in all, then, it’s the exact sort of comeback that Dinosaur Pile-Up needed, and deserved. Crank up the emotional resonance a bit further and it could at least go toe-to-toe with its predecessor for their best work. As it stands now, though, an assertion of newfound strength is a good note to launch back in on, and the feeling of content victory with where they are is something that Dinosaur Pile-Up pull off expertly. And even though they’ll never be the band whose finger is wired on the pulse, it says a lot when they’ve only grown easier to like and endear to. Hopefully this is the gateway to becoming a fixture in British rock again, because contrary to what that title may believe, the future for Dinosaur Pile-Up has never felt better.
For fans of: Silverchair, cleopatrick, James And The Cold Gun
‘I’ve Felt Better’ by Dinosaur Pile-Up is released on 22nd August on Mascot Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
