Album Review: J Mascis - Elastic Days

It’s been over 20 years now since Dinosaur Jr mainstay J Mascis proved that he was equally adept at stripped-back nuance as he was with mammoth volume on his solo debut Martin & Me (1996), but even after all this time it still feels slightly incongruous hearing him working in the acoustic realms. That first foray showed that many of his louder songs could be deconstructed to suit quieter arrangements, but it wasn’t until 2011’s Several Shades Of Why that Mascis really embraced this duality and started writing specifically for the format. 

Inherently more focus is placed on the vocals and lyrics and he’s clearly worked hard on both fronts; the familiar drawl here is easier to decipher and more emphasis is placed on providing interesting and personal perspectives. Mascis plays almost every instrument on the album – clearly having a lot of fun adding adept drums throughout – and he still allows himself some laidback guitar histrionics on tracks like Everything She Said, See You At The Movies and the poignant I Went Dust, but it’s when he keeps things truly simple like the gorgeous Web So Dense that these acoustic excursions really pay dividends.