J Mascis – Several Shades of Why

Twenty five years into a storied career, J Mascis‘s first solo album proper marks his biggest departure yet.

Hell, at first thought, the notion of the Dinosaur Jr kingpin recording a folky solo album could be akin the Gen-X equivalent as the idea of Dylan going electric. Here’s a man whose solos have seared their way into the hearts of two decades of long-haired slackers, a mastermind of pummeling alternative noise, and notorious control freak to boot, finally putting out an LP that is entirely his own.

The self-produced Several Shades of Why features no drums whatsoever, and when a solo eventually does get broken out, on the quietly anthemic ‘Is It Done’, you get to hear just how well he can apply his fretbending aesthetic to a humble acoustic guitar.

The beauty of Several Shades of Why is just how unexpected it sounds coming after Dinosaur Jr’s two kick-ass comeback albums – it’s a homespun acoustic gem, on which Mascis stands more exposed than on anything else in his back catalogue. J’s blunt fingerpicking on the title track stands out as some of his most nimble fretwork in years, while the campfire singalong ‘Not Enough’ is an unlikely revisitation of the quasi-religious devotionals that popped up on J + Friends Sing + Chant for Amma.

The occasional track is sweetened by strings or flutes and piano (the keening ‘Make It Right’), but working alone under his own name seems to have given Mascis a confidence to do his own thing on his own terms; ‘Too Deep’ may sound like little more than an unfinished sketch at first – almost ridiculously simple, and overdub free – but the fact that it sounds like anyone with a Tascam Portastudio could have done it in one take oddly makes it the most lovable thing here.

Shorn of their usual smothering sludgefeast, J’s multitracked mass of acoustic guitars ring out beautifully; and while his earlier live solo LPs – 1996′s long out-of-print Martin + Me and J Mascis Live at CBGB’s: the First Acoustic Show, released in 2006, but recorded thirteen years beforehand – rely on self-deprecating banter to break the tension, this record’s lyrical honesty (“Pain is what we do/Got enough to make s’more for you…”) somehow never sounds overwrought. It may be easy to imagine many of these songs given the full beefed-up Dinosaur treatment, but to do so would miss the point; having been frequently accused of repeating himself across albums and bands, it’s great to hear Mascis willing to let his songs just be for once.

The only real problem with Several Shades of Why comes when you realise that he should have started making records like this years ago.