Lou Barlow (Louis Knox Barlow) was born on July 17, 1966 in Ohio, USA and is an alternative rock singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Goodnight Unknown is the new album from Barlow, which sees him reunited with Dinosaur Jr. Far from sounds of the past, Barlow has managed to write some melodic pop songs that he describes as “a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh... to my ears anyway.”

This album gets off to a lively start with ‘Sharing’; a heavy-duty drum infused song and moves on to much more slow paced tunes.

‘Goodnight Unknown’ is still heavily laden with drums but it has a much more chilled out feel. The melody is quite memorable too.

‘Too Much Freedom’ is a chirpy sounding song, which has lost the drums, and instead the guitar leads the melody. It’s got a real homely feel to it.

Moving onto slower tracks with quite a depressing sound are ‘Faith In Your Heartbeat’, ‘Praise’, ‘Take Advantage’ and even the more upbeat tune, ‘Don’t Apologize’. I found myself bored with these songs they just didn’t have that oomph about them.

‘The One I Call’ is a very sweet and light song; it feels very optimistic and at times a little too sickly sweet for my liking.

‘The Right’ is an upbeat infectious track with a ‘happy go lucky’ feel to it. The vocals are timeless and endearing and I love the melody on the guitar.

The guitar on ‘Gravitate’ is simple and easy on the ear. I particularly like the vocals on this track, which are a little like chanting at the beginning. The melody to the chorus just makes this song, as it’s nice and catchy.

One of my favourite tracks on this album is ‘I’m Thinking…’ It’s quite chirpy but at the same time the vocals are very calming. I especially like the instrumental part.

‘One Machine, One Long Fight’ is a very Beatle-esque sounding song. I quite like the steady beat of the drums and the vocals really stand out.

‘Modesty’ is very modest in its sound. The guitar is simple as are the vocals; I like the bass in the background, which adds depth.

The final song ‘One Note Tone’ is a little too repetitive for my liking, there just doesn’t seem to be enough to it. It feels like there is something missing but I can’t think what it is.

This is a mixture of an album and never before have I been so split by the tracks. Barlow just seems, at times, to not get the right balance in his songs but then when he does his songs are great.

After listening to Barlow’s earlier single, 'The Right', released last month (Sept 2009), this was an album I was looking forward to reviewing but this is a disappointing effort.

6

Helena Rea