Guitar solos are beyond passé, or so the indie kids tell us. Fortunately, J Mascis is not one of the indie kids—he’s their bad-ass, 41-year-old uncle, weirding them out with his long hair and crackling voice. And yeah, his many, many big and ballsy guitar solos.
Mascis’ instrumental pyrotechny pilots the first Dinosaur Jr. album reuniting the no-way-they’ll-ever-speak-again founding trio of Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph in 19 years, and that’s exactly as it should be. Okay, it certainly doesn’t hurt that Beyond features some of the band’s tightest headrush-in-a-bottle melodies since its classic late-’80s double shot of You’re Living All Over Me and Bug (opener “Almost Ready” and closer “What If I Knew,” in particular, channel that era’s cantankerously dreamy sound), but ultimately, Dino Jr. functions best when its devilish frontman is out front, going full bore on his Fender, and Mascis seizes every opportunity to fill space here.
Even on two toothy Sebadoh-ish tunes contributed by still-underutilized second songwriter Barlow (“Back to Your Heart” and “Lightning Bulb”), J leads the way, terrorizing eardrums with penetrating riffs and growling feedback. As for Mascis’ own cuts, well, only the most scared-of-the-ax youngster could possibly listen to the three-minute assault that culminates “Pick Me Up” and not rejoice that someone out there still feels love for the good ol’ geetar.