Lou Barlow

Goodnight Unknown

2009-10-23

This album was Lou Barlow trying to record all of this album at once, with all new material, instead of his usual patch-work albums containing material from across his entire career, like Emoh, his previous album. And, as the second album in this solo attempt, I'd say he's doing it right this time. The first track, "Sharing," begins very abruptly. No sooner had I pressed play, than there was music exploding from my speakers. Interestingly enough, nearly all of the songs on the album seem to end abruptly, and the few that don't have little cool-down. The drum tracks are interesting, and seem to have more complexity than the rest of the music at times. This adds a whole dimension to the music. I also enjoyed the addition of the string bass when it was used. Recommends: ( 1, 6, 7, 11, 13 ) ~ Chris Thomas