Sir Toad, his songs with Dinosaur Jr. were lovely, really lovely. “I’m Thinking” reminds me of a finished version of “Poledo.” Start there, I guess.

at one time he was a pin-up for all sensitive indie boy types who smoked pot. i’m sure he caused many a young men to question their sexual orientation. not me though! i’m all man through and through!

When I first listened I was thinking ‘Ooh, great, a new album by that Sebadoh chap everyone [by which I mean my closest musical pals, not *everyone* of course] seems to love so much.’ Then it was ‘hmm, maybe I’m not getting it … hmm must try again’. Until eventually: ‘hmm, no still not … hmm, no, actually, I think I just don’t like this album’.

So my impression of the album – which is what I write, more than actual reviews, per se – is that I do not like it, but that failure to enjoy it is strongly coloured by everything I’d built up in my head from what friends had told me about Barlow himself and his past stuff. That’s my relationship with this record, which is all I tend to write to begin with.

I mentioned that for two reasons: firstly to make sure that it was clear I wasn’t claiming that Barlow himself is shit in general, because I really have no idea, but assume not based on hearsay/peer pressure.

Secondly, to make it clear that I don’t know enough to put a wider context into this review. I have no idea where it sits in relation to the rest of his work, so all I can form my opinion on is the basis of this hour (or whatever) of music.

You know as well as I do that when you have a long-standing relationship with an artist’s stuff it affects how you hear new releases – it’s impossible for it not to, the emotional relationship is totally different.

But I don’t personally know of many people with much bad to say about Sebadoh (less so Folk Implosion), although I haven’t exactly done extensive polling.

So just judging this album on its own merits, after several listens, and with no history or expectations, I find it boring, lacking in actual tunes and emotionally completely unengaging, that’s all.

I just acknowledge that this might well be different if I loved his older stuff, in the same way I enjoy Tom Waits’ more mediocre songs more than I would ever expect anyone to, if they barely knew his stuff, and was just listening to an individual song on its own merits.