[rating=7.00]
Since his early 2000’s underrated Fog releases, J Mascis has used his solo albums to focus on his softer acoustic side. His recent run on Sub Pop, 2011’s Several Shades of Why and 2014’s Tied to a Star, gradually added layers of strings and supporting vocals from friends to augment his sound. Now with Elastic Days Masics does more of the same but increases the full-on drums and electric guitar solos (albeit slightly muted) to continue down his individual path.
The truth is Mascis never changes his patented songwriting style and instead adjusts levels of volume, tempo, power and pace; all of these songs with a bit more oomph could easily be incorporated into his main band’s setlist without blinking.
Mascis’ first-person effective low whine, questioning lyrics, layers of six-string sounds and the inevitable progression towards scenic melodic solos make for a consistently great listen and every few years these more contemplative records prove it over and over.
Opener “See You At The Movies” sets the tone with an easy acoustic strum before fuzzed out solos while playing with peddles on the ambling “Web So Dense” which feels restrained, wanting to buzz into the stratosphere. J produced the album and plays all the instruments (with a bit of help from Ken Miauri on keyboards) and has mentioned he played more drums then anticipated on the record. Those drums kick up to close out “I Went To Dust” which starts off more relaxed with perfect supporting vocals from Luluc’s Zoe Randall.
The upbeat rhythm of “Picking Out The Seeds” gets lightly grooving before the understated “Give It Off’ showcases upfront vocals from J whose singing usually blends into the overall sound. The piano accents on “Drop Me” are another twist to J’s sound wile tracks like “Sometimes”, “Wanted You Around”, the title track and closer “Everything She Said” continues the pretty, easy rolling, laid-back style.
Dinosaur Jr. has always had a connection to Neil Young and Crazy Horse and with his recent Sub Pop releases Mascis now has a solo outlet like Young himself, except where Young was constantly experimenting on his own (to varied success) Masics is locked into his style with very little variation. Elastic Days is just another damn good record from a damn good artist who could make these albums in his sleep.
