Lou Barlow will be releasing a solo album titled Reason to Live on May 28 via Joyful Noise. Alongside the announcement of the upcoming LP, Barlow has shared the first single, “Over You.”
The track begins with Barlow’s quick humming acoustic guitars, his voice crooning, “I knew everything about you, I knew nothing about you.” The track takes on a sweet sound with soft melodies, his lyrics swirling around the instrumentals with their haunting meanings.
“‘Over You’ is based on one melody and lyrical fragment I captured on cassette back in 1982,” Barlow said in a press release. “In 2019, I decided to resurrect and expand this nugget for my ‘Artist Enabler Series’ for Joyful Noise. I used some of the original lyrics: ‘I knew everything about you. I knew nothing about you’ and built on that feeling, the phrase ‘over you’ became the chorus. I recorded the basic tracks for the new version onto cassette in an attempt to mimic the atmosphere of the original.”
The music video that accompanies the single ahd been directed by Barlow and his wife, Adele. It features sunsets in Los Angeles, the camera panning in toward the moon. Long stretches of highway fill the screen, alongside images of Barlow’s home in Los Angeles.
“I talked to my wife, Adelle, about things in our lives that we’ve never been ‘over,’” Barlow said. “We moved from California six years ago, a place that we both loved. We started compiling home videos from our times living there (17 years in my case) and scenes from some ‘80s movies that were filmed in LA. When we combined the footage it seemed to work with the song. I can’t say that I was thinking about anything specifically when I recorded ‘Over You,’ it came from the general longing of my teenage years, but I can definitely say I miss the golden state.”
Barlow participated in the Joyful Noise holiday livestream that took place last December, and featured performances from Dale Crover, No Joy and more. Barlow’s last album had been 2015’s Brace The Wave.
Barlow has also been busy with his band Dinosuar Jr. They announced their rescheduled tour dates for 2021, as well as new date for Camp Fuzz. The band also plans to release the album Sweep It Into Space on April 23. Barlow’s other band, Sebadoh, released their album Act Surprised in 2019.
Reason to Live tracklist:
1. In My Arms
2. Reason To Live
3. Why Can’t It Wait
4. Love Intervene
5. Privatize
6. I Don’t Like Changes
7. Clouded Age
8. Over You
9. How Do I Know
10. Cold One
11. Thirsty
12. Maumee
13. Lows and Highs
14. Paws
15. Tempted
16. All You People Suck
17. Act of Faith
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