Goodnight Unknown by Lou Barlow
By Xtine • Nov 17th, 2009 • Category: Music Reviews
Goodnight Unknown by Lou Barlow
Released by Merge Records
I’m just going to preface with saying, I love Lou Barlow. I love Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion – everything he touches is golden to me – or rather was. Until his last solo album EMOH – don’t get me a wrong, it wasn’t a bad album. It just wasn’t a good album. I was bored with it before it ended. So needless enough to say I was very hesitant to put on Goodnight Unknown.
But Mr. Barlow did not fail this time. Gone was the banal mellow mess of EMOH and this time he brought on Melvin’s Dale Crover on drums and Imaad Wasif, which brings a new quality that his first solo album was missing. Also, this time Barlow has taken his born-bred position as leader of the band. He is a front man, has always been a front man and sounds best in this position. Goodnight Unknown is an album of indie rock splashed with some ballads. It’s what Barlow does best and it’s why he’s still all around after all these years.
Simply put, Goodnight Unknown is a great straight-up indie rock album and I highly recommend checking it out – but if you don’t believe me you can listen to the entire album over at Merge Records. (streaming) – for a limited time only!
(p.s. my favorite tracks are “Goodnight Unknown” and “Gravitate” – definitely check those out!)
