Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown, part 2

Not Known, Yet Familiar
From: Monty
To: Brian & Scott

Brian is correct; I don’t have a historical reference with Barlow. I have had the auditory equivalent of a passing glance at Dinosaur Jr. a few times over the years, but not enough to even name a song. And before this album pick, I’ve never even heard of Lou Barlow at all. So yeah, by any relevant measure I’m coming at this cold.

The first track, “Sharing,” made me think I was in for a tough ride. I know it’s a common, even beloved, staple of all sorts of pop genres, but there’s something about the straight-ahead, pure emphasis of beats 1& 3 that really puts me off as a listener (although I often kind of enjoy it as a player). It is the rare song, indeed, that is good enough to overcome that bias, and this is not one of those songs.

But then I was drawn in a bit by the title track, and by track three I found myself being pleasantly entertained. I realize that isn’t the highest possible praise, but it’s not bad. And it’s more than I can say about an awful lot of music I hear.

In contrast --or perhaps in parallel-- to Brian’s inability to separate this record from Barlows previous work, I heard constant similarities to other artists that I enjoy. Clearly I’m not familiar enough with Barlow to know his influences, and I don’t know (or particularly care) if the references I hear are by intention or by chance, but a few of them were: Joseph Arthur, Badly Drawn Boy, Alexi Murdoch, early 80’s era Peter Gabriel, Eels, and Iron & Wine. Not a bad lot, to my mind.

Now, I must say that in every one of these instances I find Barlow lacking in comparison to the artists he conjured in my head. And I agree with Brian that after a handful of listens I can’t really recall a lyric or a melody that stands out. But at the same time I can’t deny that while I’m listening, I like what I’m hearing.

I don’t imagine I’ll be saying to anoyone, “Hey, you should check out the new Lou Barlow record!” On the other hand, it’s on my iPod and I’m not feeling the need to remove it. I guess I’m saying to Brian not that he should enjoy the earworms, but that you can enjoy the earworms and just leave it at that.

Listen up,
--Monty