Emoh
Back in the mid '80s, whenConorwas still in diapers, Lou Barlow was moaning gut-wrenchingly emotional indie-rock into a cheap tape recorder, on his own and with pal Eric Gaffney. It was a creative outlet separate from his day job as bassist for very loud proto-grunge actDinosaur, but once Lou left the band the project took on a life all its own in the guise ofSebadoh. Barlow’s best songs are unabashedly dorky nursery rhyme songs sung in a honey-coated multi-tracked croon with generally minimal backing music, the strum of an acoustic guitar often its center. Lou doesn’t always write the best lyrics ("If you love me tell me with your eyes, they never lie"?) butEmoh, his first solo album in a decade, recorded with a host of friends, is a true return to form. A few songs percolate with drum loops and tape hiss is notably absent here. Whether the record-buying public still cares is another question entirely, but, from a heartfelt cover ofRatt’s "Round & Round" to the slowly building and beautiful "If I Could," no one can say Barlow didn’t try.