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Let's be clear: Lou Barlow is a NERD. He has the face of a nerd, he has nerd glasses and he makes nerd music. He started and finished something much bigger than him while sitting on the carpet of his little room, in general silence, writing about loves not even remotely touched, which then regularly ended up strangled either by a lousy four-track (to have one, a nice four-track... maybe from Teac) or by his own hands.
A century may have passed, but not even contact lenses could make Lou a bit more alert. It especially seems like he has no desire to change, and that's what The New Folk Implosion (from 2003) documents.
The usual sugary bedroom songs, the typical Ringo on Folk and Rock with a cream of Pop, but who gives a damn?
This album is truly beautiful. At times it cradles you, at times it shakes you, starting from your feet and traveling up to your head, passing right through you. It could be Lou's wonderful voice and his bass (which finally becomes palatable, with a tone), it could be Immad Wasif's guitar (Alaska! and Yeah Yeah Yeahs), it could be Russ Pollard's drums (Sebadoh and Alaska!) that doesn't waste a beat even if you shoot it, it could be that we're all a little nerdy, it could be that I love cardigans and that the sky is blue, but I always end up smiling at this album like any character from any Cameron Crowe movie.
If you are at least a bit romantic and sentimentally inclined, the album should be savored on a sunny spring afternoon that pierces through the leaves of a tree-lined country road. Good if you're driving, great if there's a light breeze, amazing if you have a cigarette on hand, essential if you have instead of glasses, the headlights taken from an old Regatta on your face, and in your heart some unreachable love.
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