ZapTown

Lou Barlow
Goodnight Unknown
Merge
Rating: 3 out of 5
Links: http://www.loobiecore.com/

I’m confused here. When I first put on Goodnight Unknown, I thought I was getting myself into an incredible and noisy indie rock escapade. The opener “Sharing” and the title track both harks back to that early Dinosaur Jr. era indie rock. I mean, c’mon — this is Lou Barlow. When he jangles on these songs, he takes the strings with him putting as much pressure into his music, and this rough and ready approach to pop music is what he’s best known for. This is the Barlow I want.

But then something changes. Barlow turns into this fragile singer/songwriter with a ‘70s folk bent to his music. These songs work best on songs like “Gravitate” where he brings back ghosts from his Sebadoh days and a collection of disjointed lo-fi recording techniques with rough and ready instrumental prose. Even when he is strapped with an acoustic, he tries to maintain a bedroom recording ethic and an edge to the songs. But “Take Advantage” just sounds like a meandering coffee shop acoustic song that sounds like the coffee couldn’t kick in fast enough.

Not to confuse my own attitude towards this release, “I’m Thinking” is a beautiful and slick pop song that turns out to be one of the better pop songs although a standout on this release compared to the other songs that sound like Barlow just started listening to Elliot Smith or John Vanderslice.

Even though “Don’t Apologize” tries to bring back the rough excitement that would make this release amazing, it just is not enough to pull the listener on track and leaves them confused as to which persona Barlow wants to be: the singer/songwriter or the indie rock superhero.

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