Take a Look Inside... by The Folk Implosion

If one takes Sebadoh to still be the side project of Dinosaur Jr. bassman Lou Barlow, would that make The Folk Implosion a side project to a side project? Certainly, it has the lore of one—as the story goes, fellow Massachusetts songwriter John Davis was inspired enough by Sebadoh's III to send Barlow a tape of his own laundry room recordings and the two began writing tracks together. More often than not, on Take a Look Inside..., they have the sound of a side project too, a bizarre mix of the poppy, the confessional (it's a Lou Barlow album, that's to be expected), and the downright ridiculous, all dubbed cheaply on cassette. It's too happy for Sebadoh, but it's just as revelatory.

That's a whole big paragraph to say that the debut of the Folk Implosion is a brief set of brief songs from two weirdos happy to sit poop songs next to new wave freakouts and elliptic ballads. Not a single track here lasts longer than two-and-a-half minutes, and really, that's about the optimal length for these tracks. It's uneven by design—you will never revisit "Winter's Day"—but the good shit is really fucking good, whether it's Davis and Barlow mumbling over bass on "Spiderweb-Butterfly" or the Kinksian "Waltzin' With Your Ego" or, hell, dorky fuck anthems like "Slap Me". It's a damn good side project is what I'm trying to say, basically, and quick fun if you're as weird as them.