Domino recently released Lou Barlow’s new album, Goodnight Unknown. In the four years since his career-redefining, mostly acoustic record Emoh, Lou Barlow has reunited with Dinosaur Jr. and reissued three of Sebadoh’s classic albums. But as Goodnight Unknown illustrates, he’s hardly living in the past. Borrowing the live-band energy of Dinosaur Jr. and the stylistic reach of Sebadoh, Barlow has built on Emoh’s full production and written a set of immediate, melodic pop songs that Lou describes as, ‘a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh … to my ears, anyway’.
Empire Of The Sun / We Are The People
I saw the video on Italian TV. The song reminds me of being a kid listening to pop radio in the 70s. The chorus overwhelms me, with echoes of Al Stewart.
White Denim / Let’s Talk About It
A funk version of mid 90s indie-noise rock, this is what I imagine Spoon doing if they went way off the rails. This song kicks ass.
Bill Callahan / All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast
A simple song beautifully played and masterfully built. An insistent guitar riff with a devastating lyric, this time with delicate strings and growling guitar to punctuate his poetry. His usually unemotional (seemingly) baritone raises as this song grows and it feels revelatory to me.
Blitzen Trapper / Furr
A poignant song about growing up delivered in a classic singer-songwriter way, but full of enough organic ambiance to make it feel current.
Akcent / Let’s Talk About It
Heard this as a backing track for a home-made You Tube clip involving kittens. A very, very catchy post-Madonna disco song by a Romanian boy band.
Public Image Limited / Public Image
This song could have been ground zero for U2. When I first heard I Will Follow in 1980, I thought, ‘this is the happy PIL’. The concise masterpiece of Johnny Rotten’s reinvention.
Death / Keep On Knocking
Great 70s hard rock song, like an even punker Thin Lizzy, wound tight and rocked out.
Broadcast / Corporeal
This makes my head go numb. Psychedelic? Synth pop? New wave? A menacing Stereolab? All done with beautiful vocals.
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I dig it, Lou! Especially the White Denim cut. I first heard those guys last year when they released “I Start to Run”! They just kick ass, plain and simple. Gets this “old” dude outta his comfy chair!
Great to hear that PIL song again! Never thought of it as “happy PIL” (pun intended?). Every now and then I listen to PIL just to remind myself I was once younger and didn’t mind all the screaming!
Great choices. Although I listen to new music every day, you have brought some great things to my attention! Thanks! Now where did I put that last Sebadoh album?