Editorial Reviews
Music Review:
Music Review
Paderewski: Klavierkonzert/Polnische Fantasie
Rain [CD-single] [EP] [Import]
One for the Road [Import] [Live]
Amazon.com
Back in the mid '80s, when Conor was still in diapers, Lou Barlow was moaning gut-wrenchingly emotional indie-rock into a cheap tape recorder, on his own and with pal Eric Gaffney. It was a creative outlet separate from his day job as bassist for very loud proto-grunge act Dinosaur, but once Lou left the band the project took on a life all its own in the guise of Sebadoh. Barlow’s best songs are unabashedly dorky nursery rhyme songs sung in a honey-coated multi-tracked croon with generally minimal backing music, the strum of an acoustic guitar often its center. Lou doesn’t always write the best lyrics ("If you love me tell me with your eyes, they never lie"?) but Emoh, his first solo album in a decade, recorded with a host of friends, is a true return to form. A few songs percolate with drum loops and tape hiss is notably absent here. Whether the record-buying public still cares is another question entirely, but, from a heartfelt cover of Ratt’s "Round & Round" to the slowly building and beautiful "If I Could," no one can say Barlow didn’t try.
Album Description
Fans of Folk Implosion, Sebadoh, and Lou's solo work as Sentridoh will find a lot to like here. "Emoh" represents some of Barlow's strongest songwriting in years and will have longtime fans and newcomers alike singing along. Leaving the lo-fi behind, Barlow takes his place as an indie rock elder statesman and a modern day folk singer with this record.