J Mascis + The Fog
Free So Free
Ultimatum Music
Eternal slacker J Mascis with a theme album? Say it isn’t so. Well, it is, and the theme is freedom. Who knew that Dinosaur Jr. thunderrocker Mascis would be able to raise up off the couch long enough to string together a set of unified songs? But that’s for the most part what he’s done.
The patented layers of guitar tone is still here, J still “sings” like he has a head cold, and plays most of the instruments here (helped out by Don Depew and John Petrovic on a few cuts) and overall, doesn’t sound much different than he did back in the days of Dino Jr, although this set of songs doesn’t have the snap that 2000’s More Light had, it’s still enjoyable enough. As long as you ignore the words, that is. Every song has something about freedom in it, droning on and on, with even more weary resignation than Mascis usually musters up. It gets grating after awhile, and you begin to tune the vocals out, and focus solely on the bliss of guitar available. Which, come to think of it, perhaps Mascis should have done as well. One imagines that these songs were penned after 9/11, and contain J’s feelings about it, but as always, you can’t really tell what the hell he’s yattering about, and the liner notes give no clue. So, enjoy it for the sound of a Fender being tortured, and feel “free” to ignore the words.
Ultimatum Music: http://www.ultimatummusic.com
