Arriving more than 20 years after their last studio album,
Walk Thru Me
is yet another unforeseeable chapter in the long, unusual trajectory of
the Folk Implosion
. Originally begun as a lo-fi side project so unserious that even their name was a goof on another band (
the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
), the duo of
Sebadoh
/
Dinosaur Jr.
member
Lou Barlow
and songwriter
John Davis
spent their first act in the '90s and early 2000s moving unexpectedly from fuzzy, experimental home-recorded albums to experiences with major labels and Top 40 radio play before going on a lengthy hiatus in 2004.
follows the same ethos the band has drawn from all along, converting any and every idea on the table into the kind of oblong, rule-breaking pop they've made their signature sound. Having kept his songwriting output at a high volume for decades with
, solo albums, and other projects,
Barlow
's songs have a familiar shape to them. The even-keeled pacing and blend of guitar tones on "My Little Lamb" provide a great framework for
's specifically angled melodies, and the crunchy distortion and pushy drums of "The Fable and the Fact" recall some of the basement punk energy of early
.
Davis
' songs are a little more off the beaten path stylistically, even by
Folk Implosion
standards. His growing interest in traditional Middle Eastern instruments is reflected in arrangements that include hints of oud, saz, and other decidedly non-American, non-rock sounds. "Bobblehead Doll" and "Water Torture," both
-sung tunes, have more in common with mellow alternative pop acts like
the Lightning Seeds
or
Robyn Hitchcock
than anything close to the angst of the punk-adjacent indie rock
usually taps into. These contrasts in writing and instrumentation are a huge part of what makes the album work on the whole. Final track "Moonlit Kind" closes out
with the same template of light dance rhythms and deep grooves that resulted in the band's 1995 hit "Natural One," this time shaking off some of the edgy discomfort that defined that song in favor of more lighthearted ambience. Still tuned in to an aesthetic of translating disparate ideas into fine-tuned songs,
sound at home on
, taking their music to new, strange places, as always, regardless of the years that have passed since the last time we heard from them. ~ Fred Thomas