The Folk Implosion
Dare To Be Surprised JOYFUL NOISE
Startling second from Lou Barlow’s 90s offshoot.
Dare to be surprised? They gave us no option. A collaboration between Lou Barlow and songwriting librarian John Davis, The Folk Implosion not only bamboozled fans of Barlow’s other band Sebadoh with their 1997 second album – here reissued amid a flurry of reunion activity – but also those of their then-recent sole hit
Natural One, a spacey, catchy indie dance hit from the soundtrack of Harmony Korine’sKids. There were dub pop elements ofDare to Be Surprised certainly; Insinuation mixed them in with some dust devil guitar licks, exotic strings and haunting synths to end up sounding like an acid remix of some 4AD art goth band. Otherwise, the record was a disjointed, shapeshifting jumble held together only by its winding melodic charm. Tracks lurched between cranky art grunge (Pole Position, Ball & Chain), Munsters swamp pop (Barricade, That’s The Trick), They Might Be Giants catchiness (Fall Into November) and hallucinogenic forays: Wide Web was all sinking strings and water-warped riffs, its guitars constantly catching themselves falling asleep. Very weird, slightly wonderful.