**1/2 Dinosaur Jr

HAND IT OVER

(Reprise)

And so perennial sadsack J Mascis puts his long-running angst trio through their paces one more time. Despite such endearing oddball touches as a nearly cute Mellotron on "Never Brought It" and a "Penny Lane" trumpet on "I'm Insane," this is the old formula -- which could be seen as creative stasis or dedication to vision. Probably it's both. The contrast between Mascis's no-expectations drawl and the ecstatic keening of his guitar outbursts -- with which the disc is rife -- continues to bespeak a divided soul, if you want to get fancy about it. More to the point, if you've heard Mascis in an acoustic setting, you'll appreciate that this is a vocalist who can use all the camouflage his music can muster.

The album's centerpiece is "Alone," an eight-minute dirge with Mascis in his mezzo-falsetto mode, near death or at least a drugged sleep, accompanying himself with a screaming splatter guitar -- it's self-pity on an operatic scale. Not everything here is mewl and screech -- "Sure Not Over You" and "I Know You're Insane" are tricked-up folk rock, close to bouncy -- but the overall thrust of the set is a glorious wallow in loserville. Yet again.

-- Richard C. Walls