The “why” here for many is “Why not another Dinosaur Jr.” record?”, but J. might even have answered that question in the title track of his first solo record in some time, Several Shades Of Why. It sounded like “Several shades of why I can’t go back as faster” to me when I first heard it, and I took that to mean that Mascis isn’t content with being remembered for a pair of slacker guitar masterpieces.And those who only have those two albums (You’re Living All Over Me and Bug) are certainly missing out on some swell Mascis/Dino Jr. albums post-SST, a few nifty solo nuggets, and an “Oh, wow!” moment with his contribution to the soundtrack of Gas Food Lodging.
I actually have never seen that movie with Ione Skye, but I remember how taken I was with Mascis’ score. It provided a full realization of J.’s talents even when he wasn’t destroying the bajeezus out of a Marshall stack with overloaded tones.
I’m sure that those who aren’t familiar with that or any other of Mascis’ more subdued adventures will be just as surprised with Several Shades Of Why, a primarily acoustic album that builds a nice pillow for him to lay down his recognizably lethargic delivery.
It’s a surprisingly open effort, free of the ambiguous lyrics of records past. The subject matter here seems real and sober. As early as the first track, Mascis pointedly realizes with his affection that “pain is what we do/I got enough to make some more for you.” It’s a different, almost cruel observation, cutting a little deeper than the stoned ambivalence of his youth.
Throughout Several Shades Of Why, J. sounds tired from the weight of middle age, where weird neurotic shit that you had firmly stowed away in your inner synapses suddenly start popping up for everyone to notice.
Without that feedback to hide behind, Mascis distracts you with strings, piano, and even a flute at one point. It doesn’t sound out of place, and as soon as you’re used to those kinds of tones from a J. Mascis record, you once again begin to focus on how vulnerable he sounds.Maybe it’s the intimate moments found throughout the record that make Shades sound as personal as they do. It certainly elevates Mascis’ slight croak into a new perspective, as does his intentional decision of leaving his guitar prowess into a limited role. Oh, the guitar work is there, it’s just not as amplified and not as showy-which pretty much means that Several Shades of Why won’t impress the faint of heart much.
But for anyone that’s been through the vicissitudes of his catalog, Several Shades of Why ranks as one of J.’s better efforts and one of his most memorable.
3 comments:
It's definitely a good one, Todd. "Not Enough" is an obvious single that will have people raving. However, I couldn't help thinking how a good chunk of the songs on the album--namely, "Very Nervous" and "Is It Done?", "Too Deep", Can I", "What Happened"--come across as the acoustic demos of full-fledged electric workouts. Not in terms of sound quality, mind you--they just suggested themselves to me that way. Maybe it's 20 years of J rocking out that condition one to think that way, or perhaps I'm actually on the mark here...Your take?
You're probably right. I kept wanting to write how much it was like Thurston Moore's album a few years ago, Trees Outside The Academy. Both were recorded at J's studio and both have a similar vibe.
One of the problems I have with the record, something I didn't mention because I ultimately liked the effort, was how a song or two contains a bunch of "punched in" guitar solos. Hard to explain but, they just sounded like the word solo was written in on the lyric sheet and that's about as much thought that went into the solo that's on the final product. Sure they're good, but the don't really feel like they're part of the song or inspired by it, they're just there because that's where the solo was supposed to go.
Yeah, you know, now that I take into account what you're saying re: solos, it's as if they're the sans rhythm section mixes. Like there were bass and drum tracks recorded that were purposely muted in the final mix. (I've actually done that myself w/my own music, where I later took out the rhythm section tracks from an acoustic gtr-based song 'casue I felt the song made more sense w/o them.)
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