Lately I've been inundated with records that make me want to write about them, so I figured today I'd break my review drought. (Will I return to regular review writing? Perhaps; perhaps not. But I had to talk about this one.)The wonderfully brilliant Lou Barlow has a brand-new record, entitled Mirror the Eye. It's a five-track EP, credited to "Lou Barlow as Sentridoh," but don't think about Sentridoh's lo-fi noise past. The five songs on this EP are wonderfully written, mostly acoustic folk songs that are reminiscent of some of Sebadoh's acoustic B-sides, and are much more stripped down than his excellent EMOH. Only one song finds him turning up the noise, "Faith Defies the Night," and though it's my least favorite song on the EP, it's still excellent. In fact, it sounds like a Jason Loewenstein song, and that's not a bad comparison, either. The song "You're a Goat" is hauntingly beautiful and slightly surreal in a way only Barlow can pull it off. The winners, though, are the first song, "Yawning Blue Messiah" and the closing "Mirror the Eye." I've forgotten how moving and powerful Barlow can be when it's just him, a four-track deck, and a guitar, and if you've forgotten, then I highly, highly recommend this Spanish EP. This is a classic Lou Barlow record, and with the sudden reappearance of Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh, hopefully it also means the sudden reappearance of excellent, low-key Lou Barlow releases like this. ( Acuarela Discos)
Labels: Acuarela, Lou Barlow, record reviews |
