J Mascis is a sonuvabitch. Last year, he came out with a quiet, heartbreaking solo record that was almost good enough to be the best album of 2011. (Actually, in retrospect, it was the best album of 2011. I never listen to Wu Lyf anymore.) It seemed like he’d completely broken from the old Dinosaur Jr. sound and had become a full-fledged singer-songwriter. He had moved away from the old sound completely.
Then, less than a year later, he brought the band back together and created an album that’s easily as good as any of the signature-sound, highly influential albums his band made in the 1990s.
In fact, I daresay it’s better.
Soundwise, it’s definitely a little more mellow, a little more polished. It’s mature. But it’s still got that crunchy grunge–that feeling that a bunch of guys are standing around, jamming in jeans. It feels smooth, but not produced. And of course there’s the guitar. Fuck yeah, guitar.
It feels like…Rock and roll.
It feels like he and his gang might have made the best album of 2012.
