J Mascis: Several Shades Of Why [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This Sub Pop LP was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York and comes with a download code. It's the quiet side of one of rock's great guitarists, with "Listen to Me" and the title song up front.

This edition

• Mastered at Sterling Sound
• Download card included

About the album

Dinosaur Jr. have spent four decades making some of the loudest, fuzziest guitar music in America, so a J Mascis solo album built on acoustic guitar came as a lovely surprise. He recorded and mixed it in 2010 at Bisquiteen, his own studio, and let the songs breathe with plenty of air around his soft, unmistakable voice.

The mood is warm and unhurried. "Listen to Me" and "Several Shades of Why" ride gently strummed chords and his trademark melodic leads, "Not Enough" and "Is It Done" drift like back-porch confessions, and "Where Are You" and "Can I" show how much feeling he can squeeze from a few notes. Kurt Vile and Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell are among the friends who sit in, Montreal violinist Sophie Trudeau adds strings, and Kim Gordon handwrote the lettering on the cover.

Mascis took it on the road across North America with Vile opening, and it opened the door to a run of solo records on Sub Pop. For a man whose day job is among the loudest in rock, it's a remarkably neighbour-friendly record.

Also at Kops: more J Mascis on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP 859), the 2011 album.