Album Review

Lou Barlow – Goodnight Unknown

• 3rd Nov 2009

The ever multifaceted Lou Barlow releases his second official LP after 2005’s EMOH , this only a mere two months after Dinosaur Jr released the rather wonderful Farm, clearly Barlow can’t sit still for too long.

Goodnight Unknown opens with ‘Sharing’, protruding drums greet, along with Barlow’s soft, whimsical vocals it’s a steady opener that never really progresses. It’s attentive if not a little uninspiring, unfortunately due to Barlow’s delivery he manages to evoke fragments of Snowpatrol’s Gary Lightbody in his vocals, which of course is a little distracting at times. The title track ‘Goodnight Unkown’ is in In An Aeroplane Over The Sea territory, with the gliding organs and intensive guitar strums floating along in the background. It’s a pleasant enough number, but much like the opener, never really delivers on the snippets of promise it constantly exhibits.

‘Too Much Freedom’ however, is where the personality steps in, and it glows with a warmth, charm, subtlety and an understated beauty reminiscent of Nick Drake and Arthur Russell. The rolling bass line acts like a country shuffle beat and chugs the song along like a rollicking yet restful train. As the guitars intertwine and wistfully interlock it transforms into a genuinely beautiful and touching song.
‘Faith In Your Heartbeat’ delves further into Nick Drake territory, Barlow’s voice evokes a sincere, gentle and enriching tone, it’s a peculiar experience to hear such delicateness emit from someone so synonymous with making such a frightening racket.
The record continues down this path and it’s a welcome and refreshing direction as it seems we are allowed to peek through the window into the mind of Barlow, but this time via the path of emotion and personality as opposed to a sonic extension of himself.

Many more songs continue to conjure up more Lightbody comparisons, which is infuriating
as Lightbody embodies such a sense of mediocrity and half enthused sentimentality it becomes really hard to overlook that when the vocals often share such similar characteristics (at times). This is of course in no way Barlow’s fault, or necessarily to his detriment, it’s a personal grievance for myself that makes parts of the record a little hard to swallow, even if the music and sentiment itself is there.

Ultimately the album works best when it’s most stripped back and we are left with the barebones of Barlow, basically his voice and guitar. The fuller band arrangements never really supersede just being okay, whereas some of the quieter and simpler material become the glistening gems of the bunch.