I'm not the biggest fan of guitar solos. It could be that I'm just used to hearing bad ones, but few guitar solos can find that fine line between amateurish scale-following and masturbatory note-cramming. And yet, whenever I hear the guitar solo in “Kracked,” I can't help but smile. Could it be possible that J Mascis has the ability to find that line and shred all over it? Yes.
Even though this album is the very definition of “Alternative Music,” a term which I loathe, it rocks harder than any of the proper metal albums I own. Why? It has the balls to hold back, to restrain. It makes the moments when the band lets loose all the more powerful. “The Lung” takes it easy for the majority of the song, the guitars simply bending and twisting around the heavy rhythm sections. Even the solo is a pretty chill one. But then comes the ending stretch of the song that schizophrenically switches between it's original self, and itself sprinting on cocaine.
Now, You're Living All Over Me isn't just about the guitars, and Dinosaur Jr isn't just about Mascis, no matter how much he'd like to believe so. The drums and bass hold their own, providing a worthy canvas for Mascis to paint his sound on. Lou Barlow's bass playing is difficult to describe. It isn't show-stealingly funky, but he doesn't just fade into the background either. There's that fine line again. But he doesn't shred on the bass. Instead, he plays in waves, letting Mascis do his own thing while he holds the reigns on the tempo, slowing it down or speeding it up as he pleases.
As good as this album is, I wish it ended right after “In a Jar.” I realize that that would make this album no longer an album, but rather, a long EP, but “In a Jar” is a really good song to go out on, and the songs after it are pretty terrible. “Lose” doesn't feel like it's even trying to go anywhere, while “Poledo” lays it on a bit too thick with the experimentation. Both are boring.
I can't help but think that if Hendrix were alive today, he'd have more in common with bands like Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth than cockrockers like Dragonforce or someone equally shitty. Guitar oriented rock isn't just about the solos. It's about everything around it, the trip getting there, the rhythms behind it, the stuff that comes after. Endlessly sweeping arpeggios up and down the neck doesn't achieve much, especially because by then, you're just playing to yourself.
