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J. Mascis - Where Are You
(Several Shades of Why)As anyone who has witnessed a Dinosaur Jr. gig will attest, laconic guitar-deity J Mascis generally prefers to let his instrument do the talking (and by ‘talking’ I of course mean ‘making everyone in a three-mile radius weep like babies in a mixture of pain and joy as their ear-drums threaten to explode out of their eyesockets’). So it’s surprising that his much-anticipated solo album seems to be mostly him locked in a broom-closet yowling away and plinky-plonking on an acoustic guitar. Not so surprising that it is fantastic, the man could play a cigar box strung with Courtney Love’s thong (sorry) and still sound amazing.
Lyrically, our hero showcases an unprecedented level of intimacy, but this is J Mascis we’re talking about, so that generally boils down to “Hey you guys I actually give a crap about several things! Like stuff, and whatever. I’m not sure why though!” It doesn’t matter at all though, because he remains as supernaturally gifted at speaking through his fingers as ever.
First surprise entry in 2011 Favorites. It’s shaping up quite nicely.
a) BEST Music Writing
b) I kinda like them and all, but why do Yuck exist, when any combination of Dino Jr/Male Bonding/Ham Sandwich are so much better than them? Or are they just a better class of lowest common denominator, aka a debut album?
