The best Rolling Stones solo album, according to J Mascis
It’s hard to imagine J Mascis getting too excited by anything. The famously deadpan singer and guitarist with alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr speaks almost entirely at a largo tempo in interviews and barely shifts from this slow demeanour even when discussing something that you might think he might have a vested interest in. You wouldn’t think he’d be able to show any sense of reverence for anything without it being laced in a droll or nonplussed demeanour.
However, when discussing his favourite records in an interview with Uncut, he went as far as to use the word ‘magical’ when describing The Rolling Stones’ album Exile On Main Street. Recounting the tale of how he spent half the money his mother had given him to spend on groceries on a copy of the record, he went on to say how he loves the album because “there’s so many songs on it that you’re always discovering a different song.”
Often regarded as one of the British rockers’ finest works, Exile On Main Street has a rather storied history in terms of its creation. It took three years to complete from the start of the initial sessions, and it reverted to a rawer and bluesier sound compared to its acclaimed predecessors, which explored a more broad sound palette.
However, with other bands pushing to greater extremes in terms of experimentation at this point in time, this rawness brought Exile the accolades it received much later on, with critics praising the raucous and hedonistic style that the record pushes for over an hour. It’s hard not to be excited by an album that strips rock music down to its bare bones and shows just what can be done with it when good songwriting is applied to its most basic form.
“Rawness” is a word often associated with the work of J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr, who enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early ’90s with their noise-inflected take on the alternative rock scene at the time and paved the way for future acts like Nirvana and Pavement to develop on what they created. With this in mind, it’s understandable why the excellence of Exile On Main Street sparked enthusiasm in the young Mascis.
Further explaining what it was about the record that resonated with him, he says that he appreciates the fact “it’s kinda murky-sounding” and that “their guitar-playing inspired me, Mick Taylor and Keith Richards together.”
There are many parallels between these statements and early material from Dinosaur Jr., such as You’re Living All Over Me and Bug, two albums that emulate this murkiness in the production and mixing of the guitars. J Mascis has also been noted in the past for switching between playing lead and rhythm guitar in a similar way to Keith Richards, something that any guitar player will acknowledge is no mean feat.
Among his other selections for his favourite albums of all time were records by The Stooges, Guided By Voices and Wipers, all of whom also rubbed off immensely on Mascis and shaped his songwriting style at various points of his career, but he also made space to acknowledge another Stones-adjacent record – Ronnie Wood’s I’ve Got My Own Album To Do.
“It’s always been a favourite of mine. I had all these Stones albums, and I was looking for more Stones,” said Mascis. High praise from him, indeed.
