More Light Review by Mr Olivetti

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More Light Review by Mr Olivetti

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J. Mascis and The Fog ‘More Light’ LP on Cityslang.

Anyone with even a mild interest in the history of the last 20 yrs of US guitar music, will acknowledge the great debt owed to J and his prev incarnation – Dinosaur Jr.

The name been shed for this, his follow-up to the poorly received 97 album is not only possibly his most satisfying body of work since 91’s ‘Green Mind’, it’s almost a consolidation of the past 15 yrs.

Preparation for something new? or maybe somebody has shown J the way!

Overall the guitar histrionics of the last few Dinosaur LPs are at a minimum and some calm ideas have been used.

The Fog as such don’t seem to exist, so as per, it’s mainly J, tho Bob from GBV AND J’s old pal Kevin Shields are briefly involved.

Shield’s most obvious legacy being the driving fuzz-drenched final trk – More Light. It’s a shame MBV don’t grab J for the line-up.

What is curious is that there are a few trax that could have been lifted from the old Dinosaur LP’s, such as Ammarin which seems to reprise the first LP, with its off-kilter guitar which sounds as tho played thru some really cheap speakers and "All the Girls" which boasts a fab bass-line which could have been Lou Barlow.

The overall feeling is youthfulness.

The songwriting comes so naturally, some of the trax sound a little shambolic and his voice ident the same weedy Neil Young instrument that it always was, but these songs contain a certain charm, which has been sadly lacking for a while.

‘I’m not fine’ is another obvious Shield collab as J’s crazy guitar is chased by a swarm of studio bees. This runs straight into a lovely little jig of a song with the drums rolling and J’s falsetto trying to keep up with the piano and bass melody.

Talking of piano there is a section of piano about 10secs on trak 5 side 1 which is pure Carpenters! Embracing the pop ethic comes naturally as well and makes for probably the most varied LP of his career. It’s not techno and never will be, but it has but a smile on my face.

On the pretty elec piano led ‘Waistin’ is telling someone, backed by bird song, you’re the only one who can take me there as the guitar breaks thru to the rescue.

It bodes well for the next 15 years and I think that’s a good thing ‘Where’s today, why’s tomorrow feel, like a whole new love a whole new deal’, a good thing indeed…

by Mr Olivetti

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