Review
On "Put It Down", a lean and unexpectedly supple groove eases back the volume until J Mascis rips the track wide open, torching the calm with an overdriven guitar solo that pushes his vintage amplifier to the brink. Lou Barlow anchors the lower registers with a heavy, melodic weight, while Murph’s snapping snare keeps the distortion pinned to a relentless tempo.
Throughout There Near, the trio sharpens this friction between physical grit and buoyant hooks. Mascis pushes his voice higher in the mix, pitching his familiar drawl against feral power chords on "Several Got Away" and the brawny, driving chug of "No Friends". Barlow offers contrasting tension across his own contributions, lending an agitated folk-punk snap and bursts of archival tape static to "No One's Ready".
Rather than softening with age, the band relies on tight telepathy and raw sonic heft, proving that four decades in, their balance of woolly noise and sharp melodic instinct remains ferocious.
