Brace the Wave
Brace the Wave, Lou Barlow's first new collection of songs since Sebadoh's comeback 2013 LP Defend Yourself, is music for late-night self-reflection, if not quite self-loathing. While the elephant in the room throughout Defend Yourself was the dissolution of Barlow's marriage, Brace the Wave is somehow even more personal, delving into the minutiae of his collapse.
Recorded in just six days and boasting a relative simplicity and an arrangement largely limited to Barlow’s voice and accompanying acoustic guitar, Brace The Wave is all about honesty. This being Lou Barlow though, there are layers of overdub and guitar fuzz, so the honesty needs to be pried out of the mess every now…
Lou Barlow invites you to learn with him on his third solo album, his rawest and most emotionally candid set to date.
In 1989, 23-year-old Lou Barlow was making homemade recordings in his living room during his downtime from playing bass in Dinosaur Jr. 26 years later, it's remarkable how little has changed -- Barlow is once again playing bass in the reunited Dinosaur Jr., and in his spare time, he's pursuing his solo career.
Barlow's 2005 solo debut (?!) and its excellent 2009 follow-up were sort of head-scratchers. They were good listens (I think Goodnight Unknown in particular holds up to closer scrutiny), but essentially none of the tracks would have been out of place on o
Review of the new Lou Barlow album 'Brace The Wave'. The LP will be available on September 4th via Joyful Noise Recordings. "Moving" is now streaming.