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One Part Lullaby
by Folk Implosion
MUSIC:
This is the third full-length and first major-label release for the low-fi duo of Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr.) and John Davis, who earlier achieved brief commercial success with the single "Natural One" off the soundtrack to the movie "Kids."
| LABEL: |
Interscope |
| RELEASE DATE: |
07 September 1999 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Indie, Alternative, Rock |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Entertainment Weekly
Barlow and partner John Davis conjure a faux-naive summer-of-love vibe that's arch and seductive. If ''nature is the enemy,'' here's to keeping it unreal.

83
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
This is so pretty it's almost a poem about quiet lyricism--and so passive you want to put crystal meth in its apple juice.
80
Ink Blot Magazine
One Part Lullaby's songs are the ones a man writes when he realizes he doesn't have to be bummed out forever, the music a person makes when he can afford to trade in his four track for a home studio complete with Pro-Tools and some swanky electronics. Most of all, this is the kind of record a guy makes when he spends a lot of time tooling down the freeway with Beck on the stereo and the sun in his eyes.

80
New Musical Express
'One Part Lullaby' lapses very slightly into generic Barlow-pop two-thirds through, then soon recovers its shimmering grandeur. Sebadoh hardliners will dismiss this record as pop fluff, but few will be listening, too busy hailing The Best Lou Barlow Album In The World... Ever

80
MTV.com
Thickly constructed, melodically rich, and thoroughly well-conceived, Barlow and fellow Implosionist John Davis have concocted a true '90s guitar pop album.

80
Q Magazine
One Part Lullaby's chugging, folk/soul interface and tagged-on beats has a more natural flow than before ... He's still proffering those cryptic, jittery asides ("one part lullaby, two parts fear" in the title track), but at least Lou Barlow's music sounds relaxed these days.

75
E! Online
Having scored a minor hit with a track that appeared on the Kids soundtrack, the group now has a big-label deal and a hip new style--still recognizably moody and tentative, but with enough down-tempo beats and electronic knob-tweaking to drift into trip-hop territory.

70
Rolling Stone
That's the tenor of One Part Lullaby, a CD that takes sardonic low-fi minimalism and makes it into transcendentally tinny pop. Lullaby lilts and entices without losing its smirk.

70
CDNow
Everything about Folk Implosions One Part Lullaby admits to coming-of-age. The Lou Barlow /John Davis indie side project has gone major label; its so "lo-fi" sound has turned lush, and the adenoidal adolescent complaints have, if not completely matured, at least become more accepting of lifes cycle.

70
Salon.com
While early Folk Implosion albums were almost tuneless, ramshackle affairs, this latest effort builds on the crystalline pop gems found on "Dare to Be Surprised" (1997). From the sounds of it, anarchy's getting friendlier and friendlier all the time.

67
Austin Chronicle
While the result does contribute to a homogenization of this project and Sebadoh, Barlow's "other band," One Part Lullaby is nonetheless a beautiful, well-crafted LP that proves the songwriter to be an artist who can mature in the world of modern rock & roll and still remain vital.

60
All Music Guide
Parts of One Part Lullaby work very well, but it's also curiously flat. The modern rock production feels two years out of date -- shiny and commercial for 1996-1997, but an anomaly in 1999. ... That's not to say One Part Lullaby is a failure -- when Barlow and Davis pull it all together, the results are as strong as anything else the duo has recorded. As a whole, however, it winds up being strangely unengaging.

40
Launch.com
"Implosion" is a bit of an overstatement. These guys go soft and introspective in the face of crisis and it never reaches the point of any actual combustion.


The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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