J. Mascis - Not Enough

Ok, let’s flick through the Handy Band Review phrasebook. Mascis, M, M, M… ah, ref: Dinosaur Jr. Right, D, D, Di, gotcha: Quiet or Loud? Quiet. Here we go: languid, lugubrious, lazy, laid-back (lot of L words huh?), lush, loping… Awesome, this baby is writing itself or, maybe, we just know exactly what to expect now from this guy and really don’t want anything else.

J, can we call him just J? Probably not. Mr Mascis does his thing when his thing is all pretty and all countryed up: turns down the volume, rocks gently on his porch and gazes into the distance, wondering where and why it all went wrong. That iconic voice, cracked and croaking, sighs it’s way round the lyric’s lamenting confusion and we’re left with a track, which although a little lightweight, is a really sumptuous slug of bourbon blues.

You’d be hard pushed to hear this and not think ‘oh, that was lovely’. Which doesn’t sound very rock’n’roll, but then rock’n’roll is a lumbering, decaying monolith best left to crawl off under a kerb and slowly rot away. And this will still be lovely.