Album Review: J Mascis + The Fog - Free So Free

J Mascis' second solo album, released in 2002, doesn't see him break any new ground. Though would you really want him to? Sure, opener Freedom has a slightly funkier strut than usual, but elsewhere brawny riff-rockers like the swaggering Set Us Free (a bit of a theme going on perhaps?) and Bobbin are well up to standard.

Soft acoustics have their place here too, at least for the opening 2 minutes of If That's How It's Gotta Be, before the band drag the track out of its slumber into a satisfying conclusion. Further introspection is evident with the lumbering title track and the paychedelic-tinged Someone Said. Less satisfying are poppy rockers Tell The Truth and Everybody Lets Me Down. J Mascis has always ended his albums well, and here is no different with the blissed out solos of Outside.

So in short: you like Dinosaur Jr? Give this a go.