It's music from that lush pre-Oasis era when indie was a far more exciting tab than it's since become. Originally self-released on two cassettes in the late Eighties, this was Lou Barlow's melodic, lo-fi outlet for his non-Dinosaur ideas before Sebadoh came about as a full band. Recorded and discarded at the speed of thought, the songs make their point and leave pretty quickly and include similar distorted vocals to the ones on the Ween album from a few days ago. Clippings of classical music and other mutterings lie between the songs themselves.
Similar to Beck's earlier stuff, the lyrical tone is of power, violence, evil and weakness. I suppose this is one of the qualities of home recording, that you can be as raw in your subject matter as you want, then decide whether to release it later. Social brakes are off. "Perfect Power" has a neat menace: "No-one's strong enough to make me stop". He seethes about the "stinking display of your sexual confusion" before it breaks down into a scary whispering round about Jesus and a homemade collage of mangled tunes. "Three Times a Day" and "Pound My Skinny Head" are about wanking and you can't get much more DIY than that. Dysfunctional sounds reflecting the dysfunctional creature that records them.
I can imagine Lou busking "I Believe in Fate"at a train station in a Match.com advert: "I believe in Fate/Cos Fate believes me/Some girl I don't know is waiting to marry me". "Pretend that it's for forever/And then proceed to crush each other" suggests he isn't too happy about the idea. And then there's some porn barking and some lissom orchestral slink.
The album closes with "Brand New Love" which is more delicate than most of the album and perhaps more optimistic, despite itself. "Follow what you feel/You alone decide what's real/And anyone could be your brand new love." Then it ends.
Rating: DIY out of Headspace
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