Ex-Sebadoh, Folk Implosion front man LOU BARLOW finally went solo this year with the album ‘Emoh’ and had his efforts greeted in some quarters with a decidedly underwhelming critical response. The main problem seemed to be that no-one was quite sure if the real LOU BARLOW had now stood up preferring to concentrate on personal favourites from his back catalogue and treating his current artistic endeavours in an almost dismissive fashion.
All of which is a shame as ‘Holding Back The Year’ is a lovely and simple piece of percussive and harmonious acoustic pop that clearly reveals the genuine song-writing talent of BARLOW. ‘Finger’ is its low-key equal and contains some wonderfully idiosyncratic acoustic guitar playing, positioning the song miles away from the standard “one man and his guitar” output. ‘Terrorize’ is more typical singer/songwriter territory reminiscent of Nirvana’s immaculate Unplugged release. ‘Refused’ breaks the acoustic reverie with a sampled beat (the same one that features on Unkle’s ‘Be There’) and an arrangement more in keeping with his Folk Implosion output.
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Superior stuff all round.
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