Lou Barlow - Reason to Live

The Guardian 0

(Joyful Noise)
A warm new contentment becomes the formerly angst-filled lo-fi rocker

It would hardly take a genius to notice the thick vein of heartbreak that has run through Lou Barlow’s career away from Dinosaur Jr, whether in Sebadoh, the Folk Implosion or as a solo artist. As a chronicler of unrequited love and self-lacerating introspection, he has had few peers over the past three decades. But times change and, as anybody lucky enough to have caught last summer’s streamed lockdown shows from his Massachusetts home (with frequent unscripted interruptions from his young daughter) will have noticed, his life now is the very picture of domestic bliss.

Far from being a creative hindrance, this change in circumstances suits Barlow’s muse. While many of the songs here differ little stylistically from his lo-fi self-recorded contributions to 1991’s brilliantly sprawling Sebadoh III – it’s largely just his voice and his acoustic guitar – the variation in tone and mood is a definite upgrade. Lead single Love Intervene is refreshingly brisk and upbeat, its underlying message essentially that love is the answer, while Act of Faith sounds positively exultant. Even songs that might once have sounded angstily passive-aggressive (most notably All You People Suck) are now imbued with warmth. It all adds up to a highly pleasing change of direction.