CD Reviews: J Mascis

J Mascis' blissful shredding at the helm of Dinosaur Jr placed him atop the pile of indie rock guitar heroes some decades ago, which is possibly why he has more often of late picked up an acoustic.

Here, Mascis' second solo release trades almost exclusively on an equally confident mastery of his Martin.

He reins in his trademark fuzzed-out flights of fancy in favour of layered acoustics, strummed and picked, in a set of folk-pop numbers and ballads that are otherwise recognisably his, hangdog groan, light falsetto and all.

Chan Marshall steps in to accompany Mascis on album highlight Wide Awake.

•  J Mascis. Tied To A Star. Sub Pop.

•  Three and a half stars (out of five)

Single download: Wide Awake
For those who like: Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Bob Mould

- Jeff Harford